LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Los Angeles Dodgers participant Steve Sax has issued a remark announcing that his 33-year-old son who had all the time dreamed of being a pilot was once amongst 5 U.S. Marines killed all the way through a coaching flight crash previous this week within the California wilderness.
Capt. John J. Sax was once a number of the aircrew of an Osprey tiltrotor airplane that went down all the way through coaching in a faraway space in Imperial County, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) east of San Diego and about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Yuma, Arizona.
“It’s with entire devastation that I announce that my treasured son, Johnny was once on of the 5 US Marines that perished on Wednesday, June 8, within the Osprey Army crash close to San Diego,” Steve Sax stated in a remark printed Saturday by way of CBSLA-TV.
“For the ones of you that knew Johnny, you noticed his large smile, vivid mild, his love for his circle of relatives, the Marines, the enjoyment of flying airplanes and protecting our nation! He was once my hero and the most productive guy I do know, there was once no higher individual to protect our nation.”
The previous Dodger stated his son had sought after to be a pilot since he was once younger and would communicate concerning the forms of planes that had been flying overhead whilst enjoying within the outfield in Little League baseball.
“There was once by no means any doubt from a tender age that Johnny could be a pilot and his interest was once to fly!” the remark stated. “This loss will trade my lifestyles perpetually and is a loss not to most effective the Marines however this international!”
Steve Sax performed within the Main Leagues from 1981 to 1994, profitable two international championships all the way through his seven years as a second-baseman with the Dodgers.
John J. Sax, of Placer, California, was once considered one of two pilots killed within the crash, along side Capt. Nicholas P. Losapio, 31, of Rockingham, New Hampshire.
Additionally killed had been 3 tiltrotor group chiefs: Cpl. Nathan E. Carlson, 21, of Winnebago, Illinois; Cpl. Seth D. Rasmuson, 21, of Johnson, Wyoming; and Lance Cpl. Evan A. Strickland, 19, of Valencia, New Mexico.
The Marines had been based totally at Camp Pendleton and assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 364 of Marine Plane Staff 39, a part of the third Marine Plane Wing headquartered at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
The Osprey, a hybrid aircraft and helicopter, flew within the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan however has been criticized by way of some as unsafe. It’s designed to take off like a helicopter, rotate its propellers to a horizontal place and cruise like an aircraft.
The reason for the crash was once below investigation.