First responders in California are searching for a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter that went missing overnight with five crew onboard.
The helicopter, a CH-53E Super Stallion, departed from Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas and was supposed to arrive at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Tuesday night but was "reported overdue" after not turning up.
The Marine Corps confirmed in a statement that five of its personnel are missing from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361, which forms part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
The Marines reached out to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and Civil Air Patrol to help with the search.
The sheriff's department said it dispatched a helicopter to help the search after being informed about the incident at 1:50 a.m., but it had been unable to reach the area due to bad weather. It has also sent out off-road vehicles to support the search.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said its firefighters had responded to the helicopter's last known location but had been unable to find anything. They were alerted to the missing helicopter at 2:20 a.m. after which they searched the area around Lake Morina.
Newsweek reached out to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar by telephone for comment.
California has been battered this week by an extreme atmospheric river, which resulted in severe rain, powerful winds and snow from Sunday onwards. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines atmospheric rivers as "long, narrow region in the atmosphere—like rivers in the sky—that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics."
The federal National Weather Service described the storm as "one of the wettest storm systems to impact the greater Los Angeles area," adding, "Going back to the 1870s, this is one of the top three."
More poor weather is forecast for Wednesday afternoon potentially hampering rescue efforts. AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr commented: "Another compact storm will drop southward near the California coast from Wednesday into Wednesday night, bringing several hours of rain along its path.
"This storm path cuts off any tropical connection which led to the excessive and destructive conditions over the past several days. The prevailing wind direction also won't help to enhance the rain like we saw with this last storm."
On November 29, a U.S. military Osprey crashed off the coast of Japan's Yakushima Island killing eight servicemembers. In response, the aircraft was temporarily pulled out of service, causing the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps to ground their roughly 400 Ospreys.
Update 2/7/24, 11:32 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more
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