A Marine Corps AH-1Z “had a mishap” at about 3:30 p.m. EST on Thursday in Wrightstown, New Jersey, outside Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, officials confirmed.
Two individuals on board were transported to nearby medical facilities and their condition was listed as stable on Thursday afternoon, according to a release from Marine Forces Reserve.
The incident is under investigation, according to the release. No names or further details of the incident were made immediately available.
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A photograph posted on the local TV news website, nbcphiladelphia.com, taken by Jake Seidman, shows the aircraft folded into the grounds, rotary blades snapped on one side and nearly half of the body of the aircraft crumpled into a field near a tree line.
Two Marines were killed in a March 2019 Viper crash at the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona.
Maj. Matthew M. Wiegand and Capt. Travis W. Brannon died in the 2019 Viper crash while conducting semi-annual Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course training, Marine Corps Times reported at the time.
The AH-1Z Viper is made by Bell Helicopter and has been in service since 2010, having made its first test flight in 2000, according to the company.
The Viper design is based on the AH-1 Super Cobra helicopter, which was used by the Marines in one variant or another from the early 1970s through 2020, according to the Marine press release.
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst houses five aviation wings, hosted by the 87th Air Base Wing. The facility is the combination of three previous installations and is the only defense department base that houses consolidated Air Force, Army and Navy installations, according to the base website.
Wrightstown, New Jersey, borders the sprawling south New Jersey military base along its northwestern edge.
It was unclear from initial information exactly where the aircraft went down on Thursday.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
