None

'Brown Out' May Have Caused Marine Helicopters to Crash

KTVK
Dino Grandoni 984 Views Feb 24, 2012

In in the next day scramble to figure out what exactly caused two Marine helicopters to collide on the California-Arizona border, at least one theory has emerged, and it involves dust.  On Wednesday night, Cobra and Huey helicopters ran into each other in midair near the Marine base in Yuma, Arizona during what was described as a "routine exercise." Gunnery Sgt. Dustin Dunk suggested to CNN that visibility may have been affected by a "brown out" caused by dust kicked up by the helicopters. Marine Corps spokeswoman 1st Lt. Maureen Dooley told CNN, "We won't know exactly what happened until the investigation is complete."

In the meantime, KTVK in Phoenix has footage of the wreckage, shown above. The military is waiting to release the names of the seven killed Marines until their families are informed.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dgrandoni at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

Related Articles   More by Dino Grandoni

Gabby Giffords May Appear in Her First Interview

Romney's Weak on His Biggest Strength: The Economy

Jared Loughner Is Losing His Fight to Stay Crazy

 

The Drudge Report Can Thank Obamacare for 45 Million Page Views

Jon Stewart Dines Out on Fox News and CNN's Supreme Blunders

Elsewhere on the Web

User Comments

Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register

  • The Atlantic Wire on Twitter
  • The Atlantic Wire RSS Feed
  • The Atlantic Wire iPhone App