Adrift: How the Marine Corps Failed Squadron 242

Falling from 15,000 feet, two Marines hit the Pacific Ocean at 800 feet per minute. They were bruised and cold, their rescue equipment failed and help was hours away.

by Katie Campbell, Joseph Singer, Lucas Waldron, ProPublica, and Matt Huynh and MacGregor Campbell, special to ProPublica

Dec. 30, 2019, 5 a.m. EST

Clarification, Jan. 3, 2020: While multiple aviators have reported the entire image flipping in their night vision goggles, the Marine Corps said after this article published that what the goggles spontaneously invert is the symbols projected on the image — such as speed and altitude — not the image itself. Aviators who talked to ProPublica said that even the symbols inverting could disorient a pilot.

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Adrift: How the Marine Corps Failed Squadron 242

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