The crash of a HMH-464 CH-53 in September last year, which claimed the life of a Marine, revealed a previously unknown issue on the type’s tail rotor drive shaft.
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By U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Angel Roman-Otero. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The USMC was not aware that this part of the tail rotor assembly require inspection.
Engineering instructions were quickly issued and Marines inspected all the CH-53s on the flight line.
The commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 29 said in the investigation report that the crash “brought to light an emerging risk .. and enabled the CH-53 community to take the necessary steps to potentially avoid future mishaps of this nature.”