CASCADE OF BLUNDERS CAUSED MAJOR DAMAGE TO MARINE SUPER STALLION
December 23, 2022 ·Carl Prine
A CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter from the “Condors” of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464 wheels over Miami, Florida, on Dec. 2, 2021. Four months later, a Super Stallion in the squadron suffered a Class A mishap tied to a busted rotor. That triggered a command probe into what went wrong, and why. US Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Christopher Hernandez.
Because a string of Marines failed to fully fix and reinspect a lube leak on a CH-53E Super Stallion, the heavy-lift helicopter’s main rotor head suffered at least $2.5 million in damage, according to an official investigation released to Coffee or Die Magazine.
The probe into what happened to the Super Stallion kicked off after the aircraft failed a preflight inspection on March 23 near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shortly before it was supposed to take off for Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California.
It was operated and maintained by the “Condors” of Marine Heavy Squadron 464 at North Carolina’s Marine Corps Air Station New River, who repeatedly failed to properly inspect the chopper or flag it as unsafe for flight operations, according to the report.
“Mishaps, such as this, must be prevented by following established procedures, not creating new ones, or operating for convenience,” wrote Maj. Gen. Scott F. Benedict, the commanding general of 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, in his endorsement of the investigation’s findings.
https://www.coffeeordie.com/super-stallion-rotor-mishap
