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Old 22nd Aug 2007, 06:37
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GreenKnight121
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: by the Great Salt Lake, USA
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I wish I had the newspaper photo from the Orange County Register from the late 1980s... 2 CH-53Es were on the apron at MCAS El Toro, and were not properly tied down.

That night, the Santa Ana winds reached over 80 mph... and in the morning there were 2 very large helos resting their rotor hubs.

Both were declared "total loss", and were the first CH-53Es given to museums.


note: the CH-53Es were based at MCAS(H) Tustin (CH-46E/F, CH-53A/D, & CH-53E)... which was ~5 miles from MCAS El Toro (F/A-18, A-6E, A-4M, F-4S, RF-4B, & KC-130R).

I can't remember why they were at El Toro, but it may be that the winds started coming up while they were flying back from Camp Pendleton, and they landed at El Toro as the first safe field.
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