After his son was killed in a Marine helicopter crash, a father says outdated technology robbed loved ones of answers

Yahoo

11-05-2025

A Marine helicopter that slammed into a snowy mountain peak in Southern California last year, killing all five service members on board, was not equipped with a device that preserves flight data in a crash — a hindrance investigators say limited their probe and relatives fear has robbed them of ever finding out what caused the disaster.
The fatal nighttime flight on Feb. 6, 2024, occurred during a routine training mission and as a winter storm brought days of heavy rain and snow to the San Diego area.
An investigation report released this week shows that pilot error was the root cause of the crash, with icing conditions and low cloud cover being contributing factors. But investigators said they could only make assumptions since they had not found the aircraft's memory cards that contain flight and maintenance data and because the helicopter did not have what's known as a crash survivable flight data recorder.
The device, also known as a 'black box,' would have provided key information, such as altitude and speed, and would have helped investigators reconstruct the events leading up to the incident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Federal law requires large commercial aircraft and some smaller ones to have one.
The CH-53E Super Stallion that was carrying five young Marines, including one new father and another newlywed, did not have one, though some Marine helicopters do.
Without sufficient evidence, including voice recordings and even the exact weather conditions the crew faced, investigators offered 'multiple realistic theories' of what might have happened, including the possibility that night-vision goggles prevented the pilots from seeing the peak.
'We may never know the exact reason for this root cause,' the report said.
Steve Langen, whose son Alec was on the doomed aircraft, criticized the uncertainty, saying grieving families and the military need more than just strong guesses to find closure and learn critical lessons after mishaps and disasters.
'They have no flight data. They have no recordings, none of anything,' said Langen, 56, of Chandler, Arizona. 'This is 2025, and we're flying with equipment that's from the mid-'80s.'
Langen, who was also a Marine aviator, said he urged the Marines to add the technology to all Super Stallions, which he said would help aviators glean useful information about weather, terrain and decision-making. But he said the Marines told him that doing so would be too expensive.
'You're putting a price tag on a service member's life,' Langen said. 'For me, as a dad and a Marine who did this job, it really hurts. That hurts on a level that it's hard to put into words.'
In a statement to NBC News on Friday, a Marine spokesperson confirmed that upgrading the Super Stallions with the technology is 'cost-prohibitive' due to the remaining service life of the aircraft.
The Marines have been using the powerful Super Stallions to transport heavy equipment, supplies and troops for more than 30 years, according to the Navy, which the Marine Corps is part of. It will cost nearly $72 million to replace the Super Stallion destroyed in the crash, according to the investigation report.
'The investigation team for this mishap worked exhaustively, thoroughly evaluating possible scenarios and simulations to draw conclusions from the available data and analysis,' the spokesperson for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing said.
However, the newest variant of Marine Corps helicopters, called the CH-53K King Stallion, is equipped with a crash survivable flight data recorder with voice recording capability, and is expected to replace the old Super Stallion fleet by fiscal year 2032, a spokesperson said.
And the Marines announced in July 2023 that they would begin integrating a crash survivable, high-temperature, fire-resistant flight data recorder into all of its MV-22B Ospreys after another fatal incident.
The father's push to update antiquated federal technology comes after a string of aviation disasters this year, including the deadliest U.S. air crash in almost a quarter century. On Jan. 29, an Army Black Hawk collided into a commercial airplane midair near Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people aboard both the plane and helicopter.
The Army helicopter had a black box, which officials said they had recovered in good condition.
During that investigation, Langen said, 'there were lots of questions that were answered.' Investigators were able to thoroughly brief reporters with what they had and what they were still looking into less than a month after the disaster.
'We're never gonna have that,' Langen said.
Nationwide, amid close calls and equipment malfunctions, worried pilots and air traffic controllers are also imploring the Federal Aviation Administration to fix its aging infrastructure.
The call for change follows scrutiny of the Super Stallion over repeated mechanical failures.
In 2014, a Super Stallion carrying 25 service members crashed due to the catastrophic failure of one of its engines, although all the passengers survived. Four years later, four Marines were killed when their Super Stallion crashed during a training mission in Southern California.
A Marine investigation found the 2018 crash was caused by a defective part, according to a lawsuit filed by the families of the Marines against the supplier and manufacturer of the part. The case was settled, and the settlement was confidential, according to Dave Casey, the San Diego attorney representing the pilots.
The February 2024 crash that killed Langen's son was not a result of a material or mechanical failure of any component on the aircraft, investigators said, although they said the helicopter's engine caution light erroneously turned on earlier in the day due to a frayed wire.
Investigators made some recommendations to Marine leadership, including clarifying vague language in protocols and determining how best to discipline the squadron's commanding officer for authorizing the flight, but they did not address the lack of data that hindered its investigation.
'As a parent, you want to know what happened,' Langen said.
The five members of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 took off from Imperial County Airport, where they refueled from an earlier flight to Nevada, and headed home to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego shortly after 10 p.m. on Feb. 6, 2024, according to the investigation report.
There were three pilots on board: Capt. Miguel Nava, 28; Capt. Benjamin Moulton, 27; and Capt. Jack Casey, 26. Also on board was Lance Cpl. Donovan Davis, 21, who was recently promoted.
Sgt. Alec Langen, 23, was the crew chief, responsible for the safety of passengers and other cargo, as well as in-flight maintenance. He had just gotten married about a month before, his father said.
And Nava, of Traverse City, Michigan, had just become a father, welcoming a baby boy with his wife about four months prior, his family told NBC News.
About 30 minutes into their flight, they all crashed into a mountain ridge near Pine Valley, California.
It took search-and-rescue teams about 10 hours to find their bodies in a remote area covered in snow. At least two of them were killed instantly, and one was completely unrecognizable, found in a burning pool of jet fuel, the report said.
'The hardest part to read was that the five of them laid there until 8 in the morning,' Langen said.
Deteriorating weather conditions should have signaled to the crew that it was not feasible to fly safely, investigators said, but they could not 'pinpoint one explanation' for why they took off.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Davis' father said the family was 'struggling to understand the operational necessity for flying into one of the worst storms in Southern California history.'
Gregory Davis had asked the Defense Department to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances behind the decisions that led to the crash 'so that we may have some understanding and closure for the seemingly senseless loss of our son and brother.'
In November 2024, the team's commanding officer was fired after officials determined he 'exhibited poor judgment' and 'exceeded his authority' in approving the flight, according to the report.
Investigators said he should have taken more than just two minutes to speak with the pilot about weather conditions and their planned route, and that he should have sought flight approval from a higher-up, but they did not blame him for the crash.
Langen said he and his wife 'never wanted any fingers to be pointed.' They just wanted answers for why they no longer had their 'larger than life' son, who towered over most people at 6-foot-5, always had a smile, and followed in his veteran dad's footsteps.
To find more clarity, Langen said he studied autopsy reports and the 1,140-page investigation report, which was heavily redacted at times. He also examined the gut-wrenching photos of the accident and visited the crash site.
That only yielded more heartbreak.
Instead, Langen laid his son to rest without knowing what happened in his final moments. The family held his funeral at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, where officials briefly shut down the airspace to honor a man who had served for seven years and planned to make a career as a Marine, Langen said.
When he died, Alec Langen was just three weeks shy of being transferred to a safer job, his father said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com