Rescuers were battling heavy snow Wednesday to reach a Marine Corps helicopter carrying five troops that went down in a mountainous area outside San Diego. The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter — the largest helicopter in the military, designed to fly in harsh conditions — had gone missing as an historic storm dumped heavy snow and record rain over California. Civilian authorities searching on ground and by air located the aircraft just after 9 a.m. near the mountain community of Pine Valley, about a 45-mile (72-kilometer) drive from San Diego, but rescue crews said snowy conditions were making access challenging on the ground, officials said. The Marines were flying a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter from Creech Air Force Base, northwest of Las Vegas, where they had been doing unit-level training and were returning home to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, defense officials said. MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/search-for-missing-marine-corps-helicopter/507-c99896f8-fd2d-4cad-a472-dfb136fe1ba2 ►Subscribe: https://on.wtsp.com/youtube ►Website: https://www.wtsp.com/ ►Facebook: https://facebook.com/10TampaBay ►X: https://twitter.com/10TampaBay