U.S. Marine Helicopter missing in Nepal

The air portion of the recovery was called off due to weather. The US has not recovered any remains, but it's reported that Nepalese troops on scene had removed three remains, and US crews in aircraft visually identified what appeared to be two bodies.

They were found 8 miles north of Charikot. US commanders have said operations will continue.

www.npr.org...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thanks for the update Zaphod. Send my condolances to Chris's uncle.

All eight sets of remains were recovered by Nepalese forces on the ground. The six Marines wills start on their way home to be buried.

Apparently it happened fast, and they went in hard. I've seen a couple reports describing the impact as "severe".

The six killed were:

Capt. Dustin R. Lukasiewicz, Nebraska.

Capt. Christopher L. Norgren, Kansas.

Sgt. Ward M. Johnson, IV, Florida.

Sgt. Eric M. Seaman, California.

Cpl. Sara A. Medina, Illinois.

Lance Cpl. Jacob A. Hug, Arizona.

The crew took a non-standard route back to the base, most likely to save two injured civilians on board. The route shaved 6 minutes off the flight time, and they had requested an ambulance meet them for two injured people.

They crossed a saddle in the mountains at over 10,000 feet, flying into an unstable weather area as they did. Witnesses saw them fly into a cloud deck in a non maneuvering attitude, and heard an explosion 5-6 seconds later.

www.sandiegouniontribune.com...