Weather and night vision goggles were likely factors in Marine Corps helicopter crash, report finds

Boston Globe

07-05-2025

The limits of night vision goggles also have been identified as a potential factor in the fatal collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet near Reagan Washington National Airport in January that killed 67 people. The goggles can reduce a pilot's ability to determine distance and can be degraded by weather or light pollution.
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
The Marine helicopter was flying in icing conditions with low cloud cover that obscured the mountainous terrain along the flight path. The crew was using night vision goggles, which likely did not give them the clear picture needed to avoid a crash into terrain, investigators found.
Advertisement
The precipitation and clouds probably degraded the goggles' performance and possibly gave the crew a false sense that they were maintaining the safe distances needed in the flight, investigators found.
The pilot and crew chief 'most likely believed they were operating legally and within their comfort level,' investigators found.
Advertisement
Ultimately, though, investigators found that the pilot's failure to avoid the terrain was the primary cause of the crash. They also found that the commanding officer, who was relieved of duty due to a loss of confidence in an ability to lead, should not have given the crew approval to fly.
The Super Stallion vanished during the overnight flight on its way back to Miramar from Creech Air Force Base. The helicopter was discovered in the morning near the mountain community of Pine Valley.
All five Marines aboard were killed in the crash: Lance Corporal Donovan Davis, 21, of Olathe, Kan.; Sergeant Alec Langen, 23, of Chandler, Ariz.; Captain Miguel Nava, 28, of Traverse City, Mich.; Captain Jack Casey, 26, of Dover, N.H.; and Captain Benjamin Moulton, 27, of Emmett, Idaho.
In interviews contained in the report, multiple members of the squadron said that the crews had been stretched thin because their unit had to fly additional missions to compensate for last year's monthslong grounding of the V-22 Osprey fleet.