Marine CH-53K King Stallion Recovers Downed Navy MH-60S Seahawk From 10,000 Feet Without Damage

A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53K King Stallion recovered a Navy MH-60S Seahawk stranded at an elevation of 10,000 feet in California’s Sierra Nevada in late September. Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 carried the nearly 16,000-pound aircraft on a 70-foot external line to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. The Seahawk had made a hard landing and could not take off because of the slope, so recovery planners used its built-in lift points and a rigging configuration developed with naval engineers. The Marine Corps reported that the lift caused no additional damage.