Information on U.S. Army helicopter CH-47A tail number 64-13156
Date: 05/30/1966
Incident number: 0E855ACD Accident case number: 0E855 Total Loss Accident
Unit: 178 ASHC
This was a Accident incident.
South Vietnam
Number killed in accident = 19 . . Injured = 7 . . Passengers = 21
costing 1134898
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:
AC O4 MCCONNELL LEWIS J KIA
P O4 NJ HUGHES
CE SP5 BROWN ROSS ANDREW KIA
G E4 JM BOYLAN
CE SP4 ANDERSON
Passengers and/or other participants:
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
O3 RL HOFFMAN, PAX, 2
E3 KP MURPHY, PAX, 2
2LT FLAHERTY KEVIN MICHAEL, AR, PX, KIA
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
CIV UNK, UNK, 5
War Story:
Crew: Pilot - MAJ Lewis J. McConnell - Operations Officer, co-pilot - Jack Keaton, Gunner - SP5 Joe Boylan, FE - SP5 Roy Brown, Crew chief - SP4 Anderson, assigned crew chief was SP4 Kilpatrick, but for whatever reason, he was not on board this day. Load: 30 barrels MOGAS internal. Weather: marginal at LZ which was atop Nui Ba Den a mountain near Tay Ninh. The LZ was a radio relay site manned by ARVNs with a Special Forces advisor. The ARVNs had a small village for their families just below the helipad. The rest of the mountain belonged to Charlie. The helipad was built for a Huey but with care a CH-47A could land on the mountain top.
Apparently on approach, through clouds, to the pad was tried and missed slightly causing the aircraft to roll down the side of the mountain through the village. The MOGAS drums rolled into rocks and burst causing fuel to flow down hill catching fire and killing over 70 villagers and destroying the village. SP6 Ross Brown and two passengers from the Big Red One were killed in the aircraft. Ross Brown's body was never recovered. They found his watch and part of his 45. The last anyone saw of him he was trying to get forward, climbing over MOGAS barrels, since the aft end was already on fire. The aircraft was totally destroyed. You could recognize the two engines and the leading edge of one rotor blade. There was no trace of the village. Worst single accident. Written by Steve Niedbala.
This record was last updated on 09/20/1998
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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
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