9 remain missing after collision off Calif. - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

9 remain missing after collision off Calif.

SAN DIEGO — Marine Corps and Coast Guard officials held out hope Friday but feared the loss of nine service members after an AH-1W Super Cobra collided in the air Thursday night with a C-130 turbo aircraft near San Clemente Island.

While officials were just starting their investigation, the top commander of San Diego-based 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing immediately ordered an “operational pause,” grounding all its aircraft at least through the weekend, a spokesman said.

The collision was the second in a week involving Marine helicopters. The other occurred in Afghanistan, killing four Marines.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Conant, the wing commander, ordered the pause so commanders could discuss the incidents with their Marines, said Maj. Jay Delarosa, a wing spokesman.

“We have no reason to believe at this time there were any mechanical problems,” Delarosa said.

Three Coast Guard cutters, along with Coast Guard helicopters and several Navy ships, were searching for any survivors in an area covering 644 square miles east of the island, said Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo, the 11th Coast Guard District commander in Alameda, during a news conference outside the San Diego Sector air station.

Search and rescue crews had begun recovering debris, Castillo said.

The C-130, carrying seven Coast Guardsmen, was flying at an altitude of about 900 to 1,000 feet as it searched for a missing 12-foot skiff near Catalina Island when it apparently collided with the AH-1 helicopter about 7:10 p.m. in clear skies with 15-mile visibility, Castillo said.

The collision happened about 20 miles northeast of San Clemente Island, part of the Navy’s large offshore training range complex.

The Marine helicopter, carrying a crew of two pilots, was one of a section of four Marine helicopters that had left Camp Pendleton for San Clemente Island on a routine training mission, a 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman said.

As of Friday afternoon, officials had not released the names of the nine service members and the Marines’ squadron.

The Navy manages a vast training and live-fire range in the ocean west of San Diego that includes San Clemente Island and is used daily by military helicopters, jets, ships and subs. The area is largely outside FAA flight paths, so aircraft flying in the range can contact Navy air traffic control or use onboard instruments and visual cues to maintain separation between aircraft, officials said.

“It’s up to each aircraft to see traffic and avoid it,” Capt. Tom Farris, a pilot who commands the Coast Guard San Diego Sector, said during the news conference.

Officials did not say whether the C-130 crew was using any night-vision devices or only visual cues. “It’s something that we will look into in the investigation,” Farris said.