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More than one year later, the official investigation into the cause of the military helicopter crash that killed five Marines is complete. It happened on Feb. 6, 2024, during the CH-53E Super Stallion’s return flight to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, where all of the Marines were based. 

The servicemen were identified as: 

• Lance Cpl. Donovan Davis, 21, of Olathe, Kansas, a CH-53E helicopter crew chief
• Sgt. Alec Langen, 23, of Chandler, Arizona, a CH-53E helicopter crew chief
• Capt. Benjamin Moulton, 27, of Emmett, Idaho, a CH-53E helicopter pilot
• Capt. Jack Casey, 26, of Dover, New Hampshire, a CH-53E helicopter pilot
• Capt. Miguel Nava, 28, of Traverse City, Michigan, a CH-53E helicopter pilot

The 1,140-page investigation was released more than one year later on Wednesday. According to the redacted version, released to the public, the crash was deemed “pilot error, which included the mishap pilot’s failure to maintain both a safe obstacle clearance and Visual Flight Rules (VFR) visibility requirements, resulting in a fatal controlled flight into terrain,” read the report. 

The report continued, “the investigation identified several additional contributing factors, including the presence of moderate icing conditions and cloud layers along the mishap route that prevented a safe transit above factor terrain. The investigation further determined these deteriorating weather conditions should have been a signal to the mishap crew of TIGER 43 that a safe transit from Imperial County Airport was not feasible, despite the earlier forecasted and observed weather report that supported TIGER 43’s initial departure from Creech Air Force Base to Imperial County.” 

As mentioned above, the investigation revealed that the TIGER 43 crew, part of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (3rd MAW), had a training flight before leaving Creech Air Force Base to head back to their home base. They had a planned stop at the Imperial County Airport for fuel, but it turned into a nighttime precautionary emergency landing (PEL) after receiving warning signs about one of their engines. 

There was some discrepancy in the investigation on whether or not this was communicated adequately. However, the issue was resolved, then, according to the report, the pilot called the squadron’s commanding officer to approve their flight back to Miramar. It was approved, but “the squadron CO exceeded his authority by approving the mishap flight,” and the investigators determined that it should have been elevated. That commanding officer was later relieved on Nov. 18 “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to continue to serve,” according to a media release sent to NBC 7 from 3rd MAW. 

The Super Stallion crew was eventually reported overdue at Miramar and last “heard of at 2330” or 11:30 p.m., according to dispatch records. The next day multiple agencies, both federal and local, responded to their last known location in the Pine Valley area to try to find the helicopter and the Marines. Unfortunately, all five Marines were later found dead and were protected by fellow Marines until investigators arrived, including 23-year-old Sgt. Alec Langen. 

“Probably the most difficult part was reading from the time it went down to the time that they found everybody,” Steve Langen, Alec’s dad who also has experience as a Marine on the CH-53E, told NBC 7. “What happened? Were they over task-saturated? Were they tired?”

Steve Langen explained he and his wife, Alec’s mom, were briefed in person a few weeks ago by Marines who shared the full, unredacted investigative conclusion with them, as is standard policy. He explained they “never wanted there to be a family to have to live with [the responsibility]” of knowing one person on the aircraft may have been to blame for the tragedy.

“As a parent, you want to believe that they all made the decision together,” Steve Langen said.

Despite the entire length of the investigation, those final moments before the helicopter crashed into the mountain ridge will never be fully understood. 

“A few limitations presented during the investigative process, including the inaccessibility of certain on-board flight data and exact real-time weather. The investigative team thoroughly evaluated possible scenarios and simulations to draw conclusions from the available data and analysis,” read the 3rd MAW media release announcing the completed report.

That is exactly what needs to change, Steve Langen told NBC 7. He said he wants to see voice recorders added to the cockpit of military aircraft so that other families do not need to be left with lingering questions if the unthinkable happens.

“Were they having a discussion? Did one guy override the other one? Was Alec saying let’s turn around or was Alec saying let’s go?” Steve Langen said.

A spokesperson for 3rd MAW explained that incorporating crash-survivable recorders into the CH-53E would be too costly, given their limited remaining service life in the Marine Corps. 

“No, it’s not going to bring him back. No, it’s not going to give us full closure from it, but there has to be some change,” Steve Langen said.

The media release from 3rd MAW added that “multiple recommendations were implemented to police and training across 3rd MAW in response to the investigation.” 

SANTA ANA, Calif. — One student was killed and two others were wounded in a stabbing in front of a Southern California high school Wednesday, authorities said.

The three male Santa Ana High students were taken to a hospital, where one of them died and the other two were in stable condition, according to city police spokesperson Officer Natalie Garcia.

The stabbing happened in the afternoon as students were leaving school for the day, district spokesperson Fermin Leal said. The incident involved both students and nonstudents.

Authorities were searching for at least two suspects whose connection to the school and motive were not clear, Garcia said.

Other details such as the ages of the victims were not immediately made public.

After-school programs and athletics were canceled, and officials said the school would make crisis counselors available Thursday.

Santa Ana is a city of about 300,000 people roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. The school serves roughly 3,000 students.

NEW YORK — Federal officials on Wednesday released images of a doomed New York City sightseeing helicopter as it broke apart in midair last month, killing six people.

The series of still photographs taken from surveillance camera video shows the fuselage, containing the engine and rotors, separating from the helicopter’s tail. The rotor blades and the transmission then detach from the cabin that’s carrying the passengers and the pilot.

The images were included in the preliminary report about the flight released by the National Transportation Safety Board.

“Several witnesses described hearing several loud ‘bangs’ emanating from the helicopter before it broke up and descended into the river,” the report says.

Justin Green, an aviation lawyer and former Marine helicopter pilot, said the sequence of images shows the helicopter yawing severely and the tail boom failing, suggesting it was most likely struck by the aircraft’s main rotor blades while in flight.

“It’s clear that some mechanical issue precipitated the breakup,” he said. “We still do not know the exact issues, only potential causes.”

The initial NTSB report, which runs about six pages, does not address the initial cause of “the in-flight breakup of the aircraft,” he said. That will likely be determined by a forensic examination of the wreckage itself, including the rotor blades, the engine and transmission.

Federal Aviation Administration records show the aircraft, a Bell 206L-4, was built in 2004 and had a maintenance issue last September involving its transmission assembly.

The NTSB said previously that the aircraft, which was operated by tour company New York Helicopter, was not equipped with any video or data recording devices.

But on Wednesday, it said photos taken beforehand show that the pilot, Seankese Johnson, was wearing computer-augmented sunglasses, which would have had video and audio recording capability. The glasses have not been recovered, however.

Johnson, a 36-year-old former Navy SEAL, received his commercial pilot’s license in 2023 and had logged 790 hours of flight time, according to the NTSB report.

But he didn’t appear to be particularly experienced flying a Bell 206L-4, according to Al Yurman, a retired NTSB investigator, who noted the report found he had fewer than 50 hours of flight in that type of aircraft.

“It’s quite sophisticated for that type of work,” Yurman said. “I would prefer to have someone more experienced but we’ll know more when the full report comes out.”

The report said Johnson worked a “10 days on/10 days off schedule” and the April 10 flight was his first day back after 10 days off. The flight was also the eighth of the day for the pilot and the helicopter.

The aircraft was on a typical tour, departing from the downtown heliport by Wall Street around 3 p.m. and flying north along the Manhattan skyline before heading south toward the Statue of Liberty.

Less than 18 minutes into the flight, witnesses saw the tail and main rotor break away and smoke pouring from the spinning helicopter.

In recent years, New York Helicopter, the tour company, went through bankruptcy and faced ongoing lawsuits over alleged debts.

The company has said it is cooperating with authorities in the investigation. No one answered the phone at its office or responded to an email seeking comment on Wednesday.

The crash was among a recent string of aircraft disasters and close calls that left some people worried about the safety of flying in the U.S. It also revived concerns about the popular and costly aerial tours over New York City.

Five commercial sightseeing helicopters have gone down in the rivers around Manhattan since 2005 as a result of mechanical failure, pilot error or collision, killing 20 people.

The April 10 crash killed a prominent family from Barcelona, Spain: Agustín Escobar, 49; Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39; and their children Victor, 4, Mercedes, 8, and Agustin, 10.

Officials have said Escobar, global CEO of rail infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, was in the New York area on business.

Montal, who worked for Siemens Energy and was the granddaughter of a former president of the famous Barcelona FC soccer club, flew in with their children to meet him.

Mercedes would have turned 9 the day after the crash.

For the second straight game, the New York Knicks found themselves in a hole the Boston Celtics have rarely let teams out of this season.

The Knicks again found a way — almost the same way, in fact — to pull off the improbable. And now they are two wins away from knocking the defending champions out of the playoffs.

Mikal Bridges sealed another 20-point comeback with his second straight game-ending steal and the Knicks stunned the Celtics again Wednesday night, winning 91-90 for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“Just finding ways to win,” Bridges said.

Jalen Brunson scored 17 points for New York and made two free throws with 12.7 seconds left for a 91-90 lead. Jayson Tatum then couldn’t get to the rim and Bridges moved in to bat the ball away and recover it.

Bridges also scored all of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Josh Hart had 23 points and Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 21 points and 17 rebounds for the Knicks, who will host Game 3 on Saturday.

“Going home we realize the opportunity we have. We just have to stay locked in,” Brunson said.

Jaylen Brown and Derrick White scored 20 points apiece for the Celtics, who were 10 for 40 from 3-point range after going 15 for 60 in Game 1.

Tatum was limited to 13 points on 5-for-19 shooting for the Celtics, who went more than eight minutes without a field goal in the fourth quarter. They missed 13 consecutive shots during the stretch.

Teams that win the first two games of a best-of-seven series on the road win the series 85.7% of the time. The Knicks took the opener when Bridges stole the ball away from Brown with a second left in overtime.

“Opportunity to show what we’re made of,” Brown said of a Boston team that swept New York 4-0 in the regular season. “We’ve got to respond.”

Kristaps Porzingis didn’t start after sitting out the second half of Game 1 with an illness. He came off the bench for just the fifth time in his NBA career and finished with eight points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.

All eyes were on the Celtics’ offense after they missed an NBA playoff-record 45 3-pointers in their Game 1 loss. They went 24 for 54 from 2-point range Wednesday.

Despite their shooting struggles, the Celtics found some traction late in the third quarter, using a 16-6 run — keyed by their effort on the defensive end — to turn a 10-point lead into a 73-53 advantage late in the period.

It was 84-68 after Payton Pritchard’s 3-pointer with 8:40 to play but the Celtics wouldn’t make another basket until Tatum’s driving dunk with 18.5 seconds remaining.

New York cut it to 86-82 on a floater by Hart before Towns’ three-point play cut it to 86-85. Tatum missed a jumper, and Brunson made an 18-footer to put New York in front.

A jumper by Brown rolled off the rim on Boston’s next trip up the floor. Brunson then found a lane to the basket and dropped in a layup to make it 89-86.

Tatum connected on a pair of free throws and then got it back following a New York miss that rolled out of bounds with 24.2 seconds left.

Trailing 89-88, Tatum pushed the ball in to the front court and drove easily past Mitchell Robinson for a dunk to put the Celtics back in front.

Brunson was fouled and connected on both free throws.

Hart said they are going home knowing they can still play better.

“I don’t even think we know what we’re capable of,” he said.

No, the raccoon will not be charged with drug possession.

After an Ohio woman was placed under arrest during a traffic stop Monday, an officer returned to the vehicle to find the driver’s seat occupied by a pet raccoon with a glass methamphetamine pipe in its mouth, police said.

“The raccoon has her meth pipe,” an officer is heard saying with a laugh on body cam footage. “That’s evidence now.”

When the officer took the pipe away, the raccoon pulled out another.

“While our officers are trained to expect the unexpected, finding a raccoon holding a meth pipe is a first!” the Springfield Township Police Department said in a social media post.

The raccoon — named “Chewy” — was unharmed. Officers confirmed that the driver had the proper paperwork and documentation to own the raccoon in Ohio, where domestication is legal.

The incident led officers to further inspect the vehicle, and they found a bulk amount of methamphetamine, crack cocaine and three used methamphetamine pipes, according to the department.

The vehicle had been pulled over after its registered owner was found to have an active warrant and suspended driver’s license. Victoria Vidal, a 55-year-old from Akron, was charged with three counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and cited for driving under suspension.

The department said Vidal could face additional charges for crack cocaine possession pending lab results from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. She was turned over to police on her active warrant.

Officers, in a video shard on the department’s Facebook page, said they placed the raccoon in a carrier and contacted the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to ensure that Chewy is rehomed to a safer location.

“As always,” the department said, “we remain committed to keeping our community safe — no matter what surprises may come our way.”

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired what appeared to be multiple short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korea’s military said Thursday, in what may be a performance test of various projectiles for export.

The missiles were launched from Wonsan, North Korea’s eastern coastal city, around 8:10 a.m. (7:10 p.m. ET Wednesday) and flew up to about 500 miles before splashing down in the sea, the military said in a statement.

South Korea is closely communicating with the U.S. and Japan to share information about the launch, it added.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung-jun declined to comment on the exact number of missiles detected or their characteristics but said at a news briefing that the launch might have been to test the performance and flight stability of missiles intended for export.

The Japanese government also said it detected a launch of a ballistic missile by North Korea, which may have flown on an irregular trajectory.

The nuclear-armed North’s ballistic missile program is banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions, but in recent years Pyongyang has forged ahead in developing missiles of all ranges.

In March, North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles, while blaming the South Korean and U.S. militaries for conducting drills it calls dangerous and provocative.

North Korea has also exported short-range ballistic missiles, among other weapons, to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, according to U.S. and allied intelligence agencies as well as independent researchers.

Pyongyang and Moscow have denied the weapons trade, although North Korean troops have been deployed to fight on the frontlines in Russia’s Kursk region.

BOISE, Idaho — Bryan Kohberger’s immediate family members may attend his upcoming quadruple-murder trial in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, even if they might be called to testify, a judge ruled in an order made public Thursday.

Witnesses in criminal cases are sometimes excluded from attending trials to prevent them from shaping their testimony in response to what other witnesses have said or what evidence has been presented. But Judge Steven Hippler wrote that Kohberger’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial also entitles him to have his parents and siblings present if they want to attend.

“Courts recognize that having defendant’s family members present at trial advances the values served by the right to public trial, i.e., ensuring fair proceedings; reminding the prosecutor and judge of their grave responsibilities; discouraging perjury; and encouraging witnesses to come forward,” Hippler wrote.

Kohberger, 30, a former graduate student in criminal justice at nearby Washington State University, is charged in the stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.

Prosecutors have said they intended to seek the death penalty if Kohberger is convicted at his trial, which is set to begin in August.

Hippler said the court must balance Kohberger’s right to a public trial with the state’s interest in obtaining forthright testimony from witnesses. But, he added, there is little risk of Kohberger’s family members shaping what they might say from the witness stand in response to what they observe at the trial: The scope of their proposed testimony is narrow, and they have previously given recorded interviews that will help guard against them altering what they say.

Hippler previously ruled that family members of the victims may attend the trial.

The man accused of crashing a car into the gate outside Jennifer Aniston’s home has been charged with felony stalking and vandalism, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Wednesday.

Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, 48, of Mississippi, is accused of “repeatedly harassing the victim … sending her unwanted social media, voicemail, and email messages,” from May 1 to May 5, the DA’s office said in a news release.

The situation culminated on Monday, when Carwyle allegedly crashed his car into Aniston’s front gate, the DA’s office said. Carwyle was detained by Aniston’s security guard before police arrived and booked him into jail on suspicion of felony vandalism in connection to the crash.

The crash, which happened at about 12:20 p.m. in the Bel-Air neighborhood of L.A., caused “substantial damage,” according to the release.

Aniston was home at the time but was not hurt, law enforcement sources said Monday.

Carwyle is also facing an aggravating circumstance of the threat of great bodily harm, the DA’s office said. Prosecutors will ask the court to set bail at $150,000.

Carwyle is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday. If convicted of all charges, he faces three years in state prison, according to the DA’s office.

Carwyle repeatedly posted about Aniston on social media, in recent months sharing online his belief that unnamed forces were keeping the two apart.

“If someone out there can reach Jennifer Joanna Aniston Carwyle, let her know about the corruption going on trying to keep Me from her, you will be Blessed!” he wrote in October.

Carwyle’s longtime friend told NBC News Carwyle left Mississippi in September to live out of his car at a Walmart Supercenter in the L.A. suburb of Burbank.

The friend, Steve Rhea, said Carwyle quit his job five years ago and has since been on a downward spiral, including having delusions that he’s a Christ-like figure who is married to Aniston.

Another friend told NBC News he’s been concerned about Carwyle since the pandemic, when he said Carwyle’s personality changed.

“I really hate that this happened to Miss Aniston, this was terrible,” Marty Merritt said. “But since it did, the only thing I hope is this would get enough attention, attention that could get Jimmy some help. He needs some serious help. This is rock bottom.”

An Ohio man has been charged in the decades-old murder of a California woman after authorities linked him to a fingerprint found on a cigarette pack in the victim’s Volkswagen Beetle, officials said.

The print belonged to Willie Eugene Sims, 69, and it was discovered in the car of Jeanette Ralston, 24, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker said Tuesday in a news release.  

Ralston appeared to have been strangled and sexually assaulted when her body was found wedged into the VW’s back seat on Feb. 1, 1977, near a bar in San Jose, Baker said.

DNA found on Ralston’s fingernails and on the alleged murder weapon — a shirt used to strangle her — was later found to match Sims, Baker said.

Sims is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in San Jose on one count of murder, Baker said in an email. It was not immediately clear if he has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

He faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Baker said investigators had previously sought to identify the print through an FBI database. But those efforts had proved futile, he said.

Then, last year, Baker said his office “threw a Hail Mary” and ran the print again after the FBI updated the search algorithm in the fingerprint database. The effort was successful, he said, and produced a “hit” for Sims, who was living in Ashtabula County, northeast of Cleveland.

Baker told NBC Bay Area that Ralston’s son, who was 6 when his mother was killed, told him that he was thankful for Sims’ arrest.

“His birthday is coming up,” Baker said. “He said this was such a great birthday present.”

Ralston was found dead after her friends told authorities she left the bar with an unknown man just before midnight on Jan. 31, 1977, Baker said. Her VW was found the next day in the carport area of an apartment complex near the bar.

Her killer had tried to burn the vehicle but failed, Baker said.

At the time, Sims was a private assigned to what was then an Army base in Monterey County, south of San Francisco, Baker said.

In 1978, he was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and robbery in a Monterey County, California, case that involved another woman, court documents show. Sims was sentenced to four years in prison.

Sims left California long before DNA became an essential forensic tool for law enforcement, Baker said, and although his prints were in the FBI’s database, it was not until last August when Baker was notified of Sims’ identity.

“Forensic genealogy gets all the attention these days,” Baker said. “But a retired cold case prosecutor from the San Diego DA’s Office told me years ago to never underestimate latent print search since the FBI upgraded the algorithm.”

Baker also said they relied on a powerful new forensic tool known as STRmix to help develop DNA profiles from crime scene evidence.

The tool uses statistical modeling to analyze tiny and complex mixtures of genetic material that likely would have been considered unusable a decade ago.

Autism experts and advocates expressed alarm after the Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday it intends to create a database of enrolled Medicare and Medicaid patients to support a study aimed at identifying the “root causes” of autism.

Under the leadership of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will partner up to build the database, using insurance claims data, electronic medical records and wearable technology, like smartwatches.

In a release, Kennedy said the agency is “pulling back the curtain — with full transparency and accountability — to deliver the honest answers families have waited far too long to hear.”

An HHS spokesperson declined a request to make an agency official available to discuss the project, including how it will be implemented, how it will define autism and how the data will be able to identify its causes.

In a news release, the agency said researchers would focus on autism diagnosis trends, outcomes from medical and behavior therapies, access to care and disparities by demographics and geography, and health care costs.

Scientists have identified a variety of risk factors linked to the development of autistic traits — most of which exist before birth — including more than 100 genes believed to play a role in 60% to 80% of cases.

Experts who’ve already spent decades researching the disorder said they worry about patient privacy under the new plan.

There’s a “lack of clarity around how the data will be collected, how it will be shared, maintained, and how we know it’s going to be accurate,” said Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation, a nonprofit group that helps to fund evidence-based autism research.

Singer said her team has been inundated with calls and emails from people in the autism community concerned over the lack of transparency from federal health officials about how their private medical data would be obtained and managed.

The database project doesn’t include input from the autism community and overlooks well-established genetic links to the disorder, experts say.

“We’ve had expert scientists who have been studying this issue for 20 years,” Singer said. “If there were one environmental toxin, I think we would have found it.”

The project, according to HHS, will focus on autism diagnosis trends over time, health outcomes from “specific medical and behavioral interventions,” access to care and economic burden.

In a statement, the HHS spokesperson said, “Wearable devices can provide continuous, real-world data on sleep patterns, physical activity, stress markers, environmental exposures, and more — all of which may help researchers identify early-life factors associated with autism spectrum disorder.”

The spokesperson didn’t respond to a question about how wearable devices would detect environmental exposures or who would be using them.

Michael Snyder, a professor of genetics and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford Medicine, called the idea of using wearables to learn more about autism in general a “phenomenal idea.”

The challenge, he said, is that using wearables to get at the causes of autism would ideally require participants to wear them at an early age, before a diagnosis, and would also require a large sample size.

Snyder is leading a small pilot study with a wearable device his team invented that measures environmental exposures as well as sleep and activity levels, to see if there are any links to autism.

Singer said that currently, wearables are only used to alert teachers and caregivers to when an autistic person may become overwhelmed and overstimulated, and in need of a break.

“In the profound autism community, we’re using wearables to give an early warning as to when a meltdown might occur or self-injury may occur,” she said. “That enables someone to intervene.”

Autism community backlash

Autism and its possible causes have been an obsession for Kennedy over decades, starting with his false claim linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to the disorder — a connection that has been widely debunked by research from several countries. Experts predicted that Kennedy would revisit his mission as health secretary — which came true last month when he announced a study to identify the root causes by September.

Following a report published in April by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found a rise in autism rates in children in the U.S., Kennedy said the study would look at “environmental exposures,” including mold, food additives, pesticides and medicines.

Federal health officials were recently forced to walk back a plan to create a national registry of people with autism after backlash from the autism community.

The registry would’ve included data from private medical records, which autism advocacy groups warned could violate people’s privacy and lead to people with autism to avoid or refuse medical care “for fear of their data being shared without their permission,” according to the Autism Science Foundation.

It’s unclear how the new project, which will also rely on medical records, is any different.

Zoe Gross, director of advocacy for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, said, “None of us have been consulted on this. Under previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, we have had more contact with HHS and more involvement in major projects involving autism.”

“Had we been able to give input into this, we would have suggested more clarity and different research aids,” Gross said.