We're also following breaking news right now.
Crews are searching for five Marines after their military helicopter
went down in California.
The helicopter was reported missing last night after it left
Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas,
but it never arrived at San Diego's Marine Corps Air
Station Miramar.
Emergency crews located the helicopter today in rough terrain near
San Diego.
NBC News Global Security reporter Dan De Luz has been
following this one.
Dan, what do we know about the search for the
actual Marines who were on board and what happened?
Yeah, that's right. This helicopter was last heard from at
about 11:30 last night as after it left that Air
Force Base near Las Vegas.
And of course it was flying in very stormy weather
that we've all heard about record storms there.
And I went down in this rugged terrain,
mountainous area with snow and mud outside of San Diego,
more inland in California. Now they have found the helicopter
today.
But they have not found the crew members as far
as we know 5 crew on that sea stallion.
So still the search continues.
And Dan, do we know anything about the condition of
that helicopter?
And I'm also mindful that last year there were 7
helicopter or Osprey crashes.
At least 30 service members were killed in those incidents.
So what's the military saying about yet another incident?
This definitely raises again questions about aviation safety in the
military,
both more broadly and for this particular Sea Stallion helicopter.
It's a cargo helicopter. It's a real workhorse.
It's used a lot by the Marines,
but they have had problems over the years.
Mechanical problems with the engines.
There are three engines on that helicopter,
and then more generally, several independent reports now have found
problems across the military when it comes to getting sufficient
training for pilots and for the maintenance crews.
And there is this very high tempo of operations and
there's concern that they're relying too much on simulators and
then pilots are flying before they have sufficient experience and
training. To be able to operate these pretty complicated aircraft.
So this is going to inject yet more interest into
why this is happening.
Are there kind of systemic issues that need to be
addressed,
especially since it continues to happen?
Dan de Luz, thanks so much.