~ Michael Belli ~

Marine Lt. Michael L. Belli, 27, of Nevada City, was one of four men killed Tuesday morning near El Toro when two large Marine helicopters collided on a training flight and one of them plunged into a rocky canyon.

The other chopper, its tail rotor damaged, spiraled to a hard landing on a nearby ridge, but the four aboard were not seriously injured.  The two troop-carrying CH53 copters were on a flight from the Santa Ana helicopter station not far from El Toro Marine Air Station.  They went down about six miles northeast of El Toro.  Cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Lt. Belli is the son of Mary and Lewis Belli, and brother of Tina of Nevada City, and Richard of Truckee.  His father is manager of the local Vangas Company; they have lived locally since 1962.  The lieutenant was a graduate of Nevada Union High School; services are pending at Bergemann and Son Funeral Chapel.

Victims of the crash included the pilot, James Watson, 31, of Irvine, who died during surgery at a community hospital.  Other victims were identified as Sgt. William Chesire of Tustin, and Pvt. Kevin Arlt of St. Edwards, Nebraska.

A nearby rancher, Rusty Richards, said he saw the choppers pass overhead at about 10:45 a.m. heading up Modjeska Canyon.  Then, he said, he heard a loud thud, "I looked up and saw one helicopter spiraling down, its tail spinning around the nose," he said.  "The other one was just a mass of debris raining down; it came down all over the place."

Survivors were identified by the Marine Corps as the pilot, Capt. Leslie Petty, 29; the copilot, 1st Lt. Robert Walton Jr., 27; and crewmen, 1st Lt. Nicholas Petredis, 23, and Sgt. Jan White, 24.  No hometowns were available.