A civilian holding a lit flare tried to board a Marine Corps helicopter last week while the aircraft was sitting on a Camp Pendleton landing pad with a crew inside and its rotors running, according to federal prosecutors in San Diego.
The incident last Thursday night marked the fourth time since 2022 that the 58-year-old man has allegedly trespassed on Camp Pendleton, according to court documents in the case. Though the man was never charged with a crime for the first three intrusions, he is now facing a misdemeanor charge of trespassing on a military installation.
After his arrest, the man allegedly told authorities that “the State Department sent ‘radio waves’ to his head, telling him to light a flare and board the aircraft,” according to a probable cause statement written by an agent with the Marine Corps Criminal Investigation Division.
An attorney assigned to represent the man did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The incident occurred around 10 p.m. as two helicopter crews were training near an isolated landing pad that sits just west of Interstate 5 on bluffs that overlook the ocean, according to court documents and military records.
One of the helicopters was on the landing pad with its rotors running when a crew member on a second helicopter that was hovering nearby at a low altitude noticed the man approaching the aircraft that was on the ground, according to court documents. A crew member on the first helicopter then noticed the man approaching, getting “within feet” of the aircraft and attempting to board it.
“Crew members directed (the man) to go away and (the helicopter) took off at a moment that (he) was at a safe distance for takeoff,” the agent wrote in the probable cause statement.
Marine Corps law enforcement officers responded to the helipad, located the man and two used flares nearby and arrested him, according to the court document.
Marine Corps records showed the same man previously trespassed on Camp Pendleton in September 2022, September 2023 and May 27 of this year, according to the agent. At the time of his arrest last week, agents allegedly found a “ U.S. District Court summons” in the man’s possession that correlated to a trespassing citation issued for the May 27 incident.
Federal prison records showed the man remained in custody as of Tuesday. A detention hearing is set for later this week. He faces up to six months in custody if convicted.
Last week, a San Diego man pleaded guilty to two federal criminal counts related to twice landing his small airplane on San Clemente Island without approval from the U.S. Navy, which controls the island. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are expected to seek a six-month prison sentence in that case.
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