On Friday, in a statement to NBC News, a naval spokesperson confirmed that the upgrading of super stallions with technology is “prohibitive” due to the remaining lifespan of the plane.
The navies use the powerful super stallions to transport heavy equipment, supplies and troops for more than 30 years, according to the navy, of which the navy is part. It will cost nearly $ 72 million to replace the super stallion destroyed in the accident, according to the investigation report.
“The investigation team of this mishap has worked exhaustively, deeply assessing possible scenarios and simulations to draw conclusions from the data and analyzes available,” said spokesperson for the 3rd wing of marine aircraft.
However, the new variant of the helicopters of the Marine Corps, called Stallion King CH-53K, is equipped with a survival flight data recorder by a voice recording capacity, and should replace the old super stallion fleet by the 2032 exercise, said a spokesperson.
And the navies Announced in July 2023 That they would begin to integrate a recorder of survivable flight data, at high temperature, at high temperature, in all its MV-22B Ospreys after another mortal incident.
The father’s push to update the old -fashioned federal technology The deadliest in the United States crashed in almost a quarter of a century. On January 29, an army Hawk Black collided on an outdoor commercial plane near Washington, DC, killing the 67 people aboard the plane and the helicopter.
The army helicopter had a black boxWhat the officials said they had recovered in good condition.
During this investigation, Langen said: “There were a lot of questions to which were answered.” The investigators were able to Completely brief reporters With what they had and what they looked at less than a month after the disaster.
“We will never have that,” said Langen.
Nationally, in the midst of nearby calls and equipment malfunctions, worried pilots and air controllers also implored Federal Aviation Administration to repair its aging infrastructure.
The call for change follows the examination of the super stallion on repeated mechanical failures.
In 2014, a super stallion carrying 25 members of the service crashed due to Catastrophic failure of one of its enginesAlthough all passengers have survived. Four years later, Four navies were killed When their super stallion crashed during a training mission in Southern California.
A maritime investigation revealed that the 2018 crash was caused by a defective party, according to a trial brought by the Marine families against the supplier and the manufacturer of the room. The case was settled and the settlement was confidential, according to Dave Casey, the lawyer of San Diego representing the pilots.
The February 2024 accident, which killed the Langen’s son was not the result of a failure of materials or mechanics of any component of the plane, said the investigators, although they declared that the lighting of the helicopter engine was wrongly activated earlier during the day due to an effiloche.
Investigators made recommendations to marine leadership, in particular by clarifying vague language in protocols and determining the best way to discipline the Squadron commander for authorization of the flight, but they did not address the lack of data that hampered his investigation.
“As a parent, you want to know what happened,” said Langen.
The five members of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 took off from Imperial County Airport, where they supplied a previous flight to Nevada, and returned to the Air Station of the Marine Corps Miramar in San Diego shortly after 22 hours 2024, according to the investigation report.
There were three pilots on board: Captain Miguel Nava, 28 years old; Captain Benjamin Moulton, 27; And Captain Jack Casey, 26. Also on board was a CPL lance. Donovan Davis, 21, who has recently been promoted.
Sgt. Alec Langen, 23, was the team leader, head of passenger safety and other cargoes, as well as flight maintenance. He had just married about a month before, said his father.
And Nava, from Traverse City, Michigan, had just become a father, welcoming a little boy with his wife about four months ago, his family told NBC News.
About 30 minutes after their flight, they all crashed into a mountain crest near Pine Valley, California.
It took research and rescue teams on 10 hours To find their bodies in a distant area covered with snow. At least two of them were instantly killed, and one was completely unrecognizable, found in a pool on fuel fire, depending on the report.
“The most difficult part to read was that the five of them went there until 8 am,” said Langen.
The deterioration of the weather conditions should have told the crew that it was not possible to fly safely, said the investigators, but they could not “determine an explanation” to explain why they took off.
In the aftermath of the accident, Davis’ father said that the family “had trouble understanding the operational need to go to one of the worst storms in the history of southern California”.
Gregory Davis had asked the Ministry of Defense to conduct an in -depth investigation into the circumstances of the decisions that led to the accident “so that we can have some understanding and closing for the apparently insane loss of our son and our brother”.
In November 2024, the team commander was dismissed after officials determined that he had “expressed a bad judgment” and “exceeded his authority” by approving the flight, according to the report.
Investigators said he should have taken more than two minutes to speak with the pilot of weather conditions and their planned route, and that he should have approved theft from a higher, but they did not blame him for the accident.
Langen said that he and his wife “never wanted fingers to be pointed out”. They just wanted answers to explain why they no longer had their son “greater than life”, who dominated most people at 6 feet 5 inches, always had a smile and followed the traces of his veteran father.
To find more clarity, Langen said that he had studied autopsy reports and the 1,140 -page investigation report, which was sometimes strongly expounded. He also examined the heartbreaking photos of the accident and visited the accident site.
It only gave more sorrow.
Instead, Langen put his son to rest without knowing what happened in his last moments. The family organized their funerals at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, where officials briefly closed the air space to honor a man who had served for seven years and had planned to make a career as a navy, Langen said.
When he died, Alec Langen was only three weeks before being transferred to safer work, said his father.