Five US Marines were on their way from an air force base in Nevada to Southern California when the military helicopter crashed. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter was located on Wednesday in a mountain range in the Pine Valley region of southern California.
It was initially unclear whether the five Marines survived the crash. Large parts of California have been hit by a violent storm in recent days, causing heavy snowfall in the mountains. Last year there were a number of accidents involving US military aircraft. A V-22 Osprey military aircraft crashed off the Japanese coast in November, killing eight people.