A Marine Corps utility helicopter was damaged while a contractor was transporting it down the East Coast on Jan. 5.
A military-contracted ground carrier was moving a UH-1Y Venom helicopter from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, to Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, when the mishap occurred, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing said in a statement to Marine Corps Times on Wednesday.
The Venom belonged to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773, a Reserve unit that operates aircraft out of New Jersey and New Orleans.
The squadron received word of the damage on Jan. 8, according to the statement. The statement didn’t provide details about what kind of mishap occurred.
The Naval Safety Command labeled the mishap as Class A, indicating that the aircraft sustained at least $2.5 million in damage.
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The aircraft is now with the North Carolina-based Fleet Readiness Center East, which is evaluating the damage, the statement said.
Venoms conduct a wide range of missions, including close air support, search and rescue, and armed reconnaissance. The Marine Corps had an inventory of 128 Venoms in 2022, according to the aviation planning document released that year.
In December, a Marine unit at an air station in Japan discovered an unspecified maintenance issue involving multiple aircraft, including the Venom, prompting Marines to take “corrective action.”
Irene Loewenson is a staff reporter for Marine Corps Times. She joined Military Times as an editorial fellow in August 2022. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.
