Information on U.S. Army helicopter UH-1D tail number 63-08747
Date: 11/04/1965
Incident number: 0D169ACD Accident case number: 0D169 Total Loss Accident
Unit: C/227 AHB 1 CAV
South Vietnam
Number killed in accident = 3 . . Injured = 0 . . Passengers = 3
costing 255147
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Army Aviation Safety Center database. Also: OPERA (Operations Report. )
Loss to Inventory
Crew Members:
P MAJ STEEL RICHARD EDWARD KIA
CE SP5 PINKERTON BENJAMIN ROBERT KIA
Passengers and/or other participants:
MSG CLARK JAMES EARL, AR, PX, KIA
SGT HITT ROY MARVIN JR, AR, PX, KIA
1LT LYONS WILLIAM JOHN, AR, PX, KIA
War Story:
Mid-air with 64-13615. Need clarification on which people were on which helicopter.
The way I remember it, Ben was the crew chief on the one and Champ was on the other and there was only one passenger and that was the major. The chopper that Ben was on was on its way back from a supply run . The one that Champ was on had just refueled as Ben's chopper was directly above. Capt. Fisher( Champ's Pilot) lifted off directly under the other helicopter. A handful of us stood there helpless and watched. There was the crash, then the explosion, then the fire. Everone was burned beyond recognition except Ben's head. We guessed the rotor got him on impact. This picture still haunts me today. At that time we didn`t know for sure who it was on the above chopper, we had to wait until they all got back from whereever. Then I remember going to operations and checking the board. Finding that Ben's flight wasn`t back, I started to wonder but there was still lots of aircraft in the air from other companys. We had our evening meal - after that back to operations. There we found out they where both our choppers. The TOP SGT's NAME was McCalister). cav66@lcworkshop.com Ken Taylor Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2000
This record was last updated on 12/01/2000
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