Posted on: Monday, August 16, 2004
O'ahu Marines in stable condition after Okinawa helicopter crash
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Three Hawai'i-based Marines who were aboard a helicopter that crashed Friday into a college campus on Okinawa are recuperating in a U.S. Naval Hospital.
One of the Marines was more seriously injured than the other two, but all are in stable condition at Camp Lester Naval Hospital in Okinawa and none of their injuries are life threatening, said Chuck Little, a spokesman for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific at Camp Smith.
Classes at Okinawa International University were not in session, and no one on the ground was injured.
With the assistance of the Okinawa Prefectural Police, the crash site was cordoned off while military authorities investigated, Little said.
The helicopter and crew are from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron-463, which is based at Kane'ohe and had deployed to Okinawa in early April.
Little said the squadron is not scheduled at this time to deploy to the Middle East. Nearly 1,000 Kane'ohe Marines could deploy to the Middle East later this year.
The helicopter, a CH-53 D "Sea Stallion," clipped a building before spiraling to the ground and catching fire. Some witnesses reported seeing the helicopter's tail rotor detach before the aircraft struck the building, according to the Pacific edition of Stars & Stripes.
Little said CH-53Ds on Okinawa were grounded until further notice. All other Marine helicopters were subjected to safety inspections and cleared for flight, he said.
The university is a few hundred yards beyond the fence line of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, in Ginowan, a densely populated city on Okinawa, long the site of tensions between U.S. military personnel and local residents.
In late 1995, thousands of Okinawans protested the presence of U.S. military bases in southern Japan after two Marines and a sailor were accused of abducting a raping a 12-year-old Okinawan girl.
Since the mid-1990s, U.S. and Japanese officials have discussed moving Futenma out of Ginowan to a less populated area, but plans were delayed after residents near a proposed location protested.
Some political leaders in Okinawa this weekend were renewing demands that the base be moved, according to the Associated Press.
Little said the Marines do not oppose a move. "The Marine Corps is very cognizant of the hazards of having an air station in a very densely populated area," he said yesterday. "We support the relocation of Futenma, but any decision to relocate must be made by our respective governments."
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
