More detail on this person: UPDATED:
Helicopter Pilot Killed, Posted: 5:13 PM Nov 9,
2007, Last Updated: 7:04 PM Nov 9, 2007,
Reporter: Rob Pratt This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site:
03/10/2024
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Morristown (WVLT) - A helicopter pilot has died
after being hit by the rotor after landing in
Morristown. The pilot is a 64 year-old Harold E.
"Gene" Jones, a retired Army pilot from Princeton,
West Virginia. The Morristown Police Department
says Jones stopped at the Moore-Murrell Airport to
refuel the helicopter, a Bell 407 like the one
pictured above, just after 3:00 p.m. Friday. They
say he was returning to the aircraft and was
somehow hit by the main rotor at the rear of the
helicopter and killed. The two passengers riding
with the pilot were not in the helicopter at the
time of the accident and were not hurt. Hamblen
County Coroner Eddie Davis confirmed that the
pilot was killed instantly. Logan & Kanawha Coal
issued a release about the accident, saying Logan
had been employed with them and its affiliated
companies since July 12, 1982. "Mr. Jones was an
accomplished pilot having served as both a
military and private pilot," said John Earles with
Logan & Kanawha. The Federal Aviation
Administration is investigating the accident.
Eugene Jones served one or two tours in Vietnam
as an Army maintenance officer and we all spent 10
plus years in the Virginia National Guard flying
UH-1Hs. I lived in Roanoke, VA and hitched rides
with gene in his Cherokee going back and forth to
RIC. He was a fine pilot and gentleman. Gene
flew a Jetranger for a coal company and on a
flight last yer, after setting the friction lock
on the cyclic to load pax and their bags, he
walked under the turning rotor and a wind gust
flexed the rotor down and hit him in hte head and
died instantly. He asked his wife to be buried in
his flight suit so some National Guard aviators
flew one out to West Virginia for him to be buried
in. What a waste of a great guy to survive
Vietnam and get whacked on a business flight.
From: William L. Terry, USA Retired