A Marine Corps helicopter made a "precautionary landing" at Twentynine Palms Municipal Airport in California on Tuesday after an unspecified cockpit warning indicated a possible problem, officials said.
According to a release from Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center 29 Palms, the aircraft was a UH-1Y Super Huey from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367, part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.
"While conducting a regularly scheduled exercise, the pilots were notified by a cockpit indicator warning and followed the standard operating procedures to land the aircraft in the safest manner possible," officials said in the release. "They chose to land the helicopter at the local airport to ensure the safety of the Marines conducting the exercise and local community."
No Marines were injured, and the aircraft and the landing site sustained no damage, according to the release.
An inspection of the Super Huey revealed no problems with the aircraft, either mechanically or structurally, and Marines who investigated ultimately decided the warning "was triggered due to gearbox chips," officials said.
Queries to clarify what went wrong in the gearbox did not receive an immediate response.
The landing scare follows a series of much more serious mishaps involving military aircraft in recent weeks.
On April 3, four Marines were killed in a CH-53E Super Stallion Crash in El Centro, California. A day later, a pilot for the Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team, Maj. Stephen Del Bagno, was killed when his F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed near Nellis Air Base, Nevada.
In March, seven airmen were killed in a tragic HH-60 Pave Hawk crash in a non-combat incident in Iraq. In a separate incident, two Navy pilots died when their F/A-18 Super Hornet crashed near Key West, Florida.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
