Information on U.S. Army helicopter UH-1H tail number 68-15248
The Army purchased this helicopter 1268
Total flight hours at this point: 00000376
Date: 07/20/1969
Incident number: 690720011ACD Accident case number: 690720011 Total loss or fatality Accident
Unit: C/158 AVN
The station for this helicopter was Camp Eagle in
Number killed in accident = 1 . . Injured = 0 . . Passengers = 1
costing 45000
Source(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Army Aviation Safety Center database.
Crew Members:
AC W2 JC ROSS
PX SFC COUCH JAMES ROBERT KIA
Accident Summary:
INDIVIDUAL COMING TO BOARD ACFT WALKED INTO M/R BLADE TERRAIN WAS SLOPED INDIVIDUAL WAS HIT ON HEAD NO DAM TO ACFT \
War Story:
On July 20, 1969, SFC James R. Couch was assisting in an aircraft recovery in Thua Thien Province (I Corps). Couch walked down a slope of a hill to get on another aircraft that would return to the Phoenix's Nest, his unit’s base. Despite the efforts of the crew chief to warn Couch to bend down, Couch didn't see the crew chief or was distracted by something else, and he walked into the main rotor blade. He was immediately taken back to Camp Evans Medical and then was transported to a Navy hospital ship (either the USS Repose or USS Sanctuary) off the South Vietnamese coast where he died. The sad thing was that “Pappy” had been at one time in his military career a member of the Presidential Flight Detachment for President Lyndon Johnson. He was well respected by everyone in the company. [Taken from phoenix158.org]
This record was last updated on 05/21/2015
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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
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