World Notes

At the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni, 662 miles north of Okinawa, it was Friendship Day, an annual occasion when Japanese visitors are invited to tour the base and view displays of planes, weapons and vehicles. Among the crowd-pulling exhibits were two Sikorsky CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters, the Marines' workhorse troop carrier. The two choppers, similar to those used in the ill-fated attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran in April 1980, had flown in for the event from their base in Okinawa. When the display ended, they left for home.

One never got there. About two hours into the three-hour flight, over the ocean near Yakushima, the lead helicopter radioed that it had developed transmission problems and was turning back toward land. Moments later, with 17 Marines aboard, the aircraft plunged into the Pacific. The second helicopter apparently spotted men in the water and dropped dye markers and a raft, but after a 24-hour search by planes and ships, no survivors were found. The cause of the crash remains unknown.