page_title: 2005 Al-Anbar CH-53E crash
section_title: Accident
hierarchical_section_title: 2005 Al-Anbar CH-53E crash / Accident
context_page_description: The 2005 Al-Anbar CH-53E crash refers to an aviation accident which occurred on January 26, 2005 when a United States Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crashed while ferrying U.S. military personnel in the Al-Anbar province of western Iraq, near the town of Ar-Rutbah. All thirty-one troops aboard the helicopter died in the crash which made it the deadliest single incident for U.S. troops during the Iraq War. The accident took place while coalition forces were trying to secure the country ahead of the January 2005 Iraqi parliamentary election slated to take place later that month. The cause of the crash was determined to be the pilots becoming disoriented when they flew into a sandstorm
context_section_description: At 1:20am AST on 26 January 2005 a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter (164536), code named Sampson 22 from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 (HMH-361) was ferrying a platoon of U.S. Marines from the 3rd Marine Division in Al-Anbar province, Iraq near the town of Ar-Rutbah, about seventy miles from the Jordanian border when it encountered a sandstorm.
  Sampson 22's pilots, Captain Paul C. Alaniz, 32, and Captain Lyle L. Gordon, 31, became disoriented in the storm and did not realize the helicopter was banking to the left when it crashed into the ground. Of the four crew and 27 passengers, of which all but one were U.S. Marines, all were killed. General John Abizaid, commander of US troops in Iraq, said the helicopter was on "a routine mission in support of the elections". The helicopter was carrying the troops to secure a polling site in preparation for the January 2005 Iraqi parliamentary elections set to take place four days from the day of the crash.
caption: Al-Anbar province, Iraq