Sacramento-area Marine, son of former Dodgers infielder, among 5 killed in California crash

One of the five Marines killed in a Osprey crash Wednesday in a Southern California desert has been identified as a Sacramento-area pilot and the son of a former Major League infielder.

On Friday night, the Marines’ 3rd Aircraft Wing announced that Capt. John Sax, 33, was killed when his MV-22B tiltrotor aircraft crashed near Glamis. Also killed in the crash were Capt. Nicholas P. Losapio, 31; Cpl. Nicholas E. Carlson, 21; Cpl. Seth D. Rasmuson, 21; and Lance Cpl. Evan A. Strickland, 19.

Sax and Losapio were piloting the craft when the Osprey went down during training in a remote area in Imperial County about 115 miles east of San Diego and about 50 miles from Yuma, Arizona. The Marines were based at Camp Pendleton and assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 364 of Marine Aircraft Group 39, part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing headquartered at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.

“It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the loss of five Marines from the Purple Fox family,” Lt. Col. John C. Miller, the squadron’s commanding officer, said in a statement. “This is an extremely difficult time for VMM-364 and it is hard to express the impact that this loss has had on our squadron and its families.”

Sax, who grew up in the Granite Bay and Roseville areas of Placer County, is the son of Steve Sax, who played 13 seasons as a second baseman most notably for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The elder Sax was born in West Sacramento and resides in the capital region.

Sax and his comrades were participating in routine live-fire training over their gunnery range in the Imperial Valley desert, said Marine Maj. Mason Englehart, spokesperson for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

The Osprey, a hybrid airplane and helicopter, flew in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Marines, the Navy and the Air Force, but has been criticized by some as unsafe. For the Marines, the aircraft is used to transport personnel, equipment and supplies. It is designed to take off like a helicopter, rotate its propellers to a horizontal position and cruise like an airplane, allowing it to be deployed from small expeditionary airfields, as well as ships.

At least 46 fatalities have resulted from 13 crashes of the craft since the military began using the aircraft in 2000. According to Wired magazine, crashes of the craft resulted in 30 deaths. Most recently, four Marines were killed when a Marine Corps Osprey crashed on March 18 near a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle while participating in a NATO exercise.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.