High winds and blowing sand forced a Marine Corps Osprey aircraft on its way to the Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms to divert to the Yucca Valley airport Saturday morning, where it was grounded for about 22 hours. The twin-engine, tilt-rotor aircraft from VMM-268, based in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, was participating in the Integrated Training Exercise at the Combat Center. The pilot told onlookers who gathered at the airport that they were training when they had some trouble and landed in Yucca Valley due to a sensor picking up metal fragments. A second Osprey brought in parts to fix it and after repairs they remained grounded due to wind. The Osprey took off from the airport for the base about 8:30 Sunday morning.
Morongo Basin residents reported that the high winds—which were forecast to be about 60 miles per hour—downed utility lines and caused power outages; ripped off shingles and in some cases, parts of roofs; blew over fences; and destroyed outbuildings and abandoned homestead cabins. Sandstorms caused limited visibility for drivers.
At the end of the military video below, the same Osprey aircraft that was grounded in Yucca Valley by mechanical problems and the wind storm is shown being loaded onto a ship to be transported to California to take place in the current Integrated Training Exercise.
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/778246/vmm-268-prepares-aircraft-itx
