Information on U.S. Army helicopter CH-47C tail number 67-18513
The Army purchased this helicopter 0468
Total flight hours at this point: 00000439
Date: 08/02/1969
Incident number: 690802211ACD Accident case number: 690802211 Total loss or fatality Accident
Unit: C/159 AVN
This was a Accident incident.
The station for this helicopter was Phu Bai in South Vietnam
UTM grid coordinates: BT143074 (To see this location on a map, go to https://legallandconverter.com/p50.html and search on Grid Reference 49PBT143074)
Number killed in accident = 5 . . Injured = 0 . . Passengers = 0
costing 1793024
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 CW2 VAQUERA ALBERT ALVARADO KIA
P WO1 DIVES THOMAS LAMONTE JR KIA
CE SP4 STACEY JAMES SHELTON KIA
G SP4 IRELAN DANIEL ALBERT KIA
CE SP4 RYAN THOMAS KEVIN KIA
Accident Summary:
THIS MAJOR A/C ACCIDENT INVOLVED A MID-AIR COLLISION BETWEEN AN AIRMY CH-47C AIRCRAFT AND AN AIR FORCE O-2A IN RVN. THE CHINOOK WAS BEING FLOWN ON A LOGISTICAL SUPPORT MISSION AND WAS CLIMBING THROUGH APPROXIMATELY 3000' OF INDICATED ALTITUDE WHEN IT WAS STRUCK FROM THE LEFT REAR BY THE O-2A WHICH WAS IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING A LEFT TURN. BOTH AIRCRAFT PARTIALLY DISINTEGRATED IN MID-AIR AND THENCE FELL TO THE GROUND OUT OF CONTROL. ALL PERSONNEL ABOARD BOTH AIRCRAFT SUSTAINED FATAL INJURIES. THE REMAINS OF THE CHINOOK WERE MOSTLY CONSUMED BY POST-CRASH FIRE.\\
War Story:
It happened about 10:00 a.m. on Aug. 2, 1969. The sky was clear with
visibility unlimited. We had been making two-ship sorties to a firebase
west of Chu Lai since dawn. The loads consisted of our taking 105mm ammo in
and hauling out an occasional wounded. We were getting shot at with 51cal
on most trips in and out so we were making steep spiralling approaches from
about 4500, drop our load and haul ass back out the same way......steep
spiralling ascent.....at max climb out.
Gene Collings and I led the flight of two the first four loads we took to
the firebase that morning, then we swapped off and Al Vaquera and Tommy
Dives in 513 led the trail formation. They dropped their load first and we
were right behind them......dropped our load and began the climb out. They
were about 100 yards in front and above us climbing out in a steep left hand
spiral. At about 3500 feet and from directly behind and below them I saw a
puff of smoke and what looked like sticks flying away from 513. The sticks
were the blades. My first thought was they had been hit by an SA-7 but then
Gene said he saw the Air Force FAC just as they collided. I was almost
certain it was a pusher-puller type....thought that was an 0-2 but maybe it
is an OV-10 (CRS). (Location was approximately five miles NW of Tam Ky.)
We followed 513 to the ground and I kept calling them on the radio but got
no response. To this day I have no idea why I kept calling them.....but at
the time it seemed like the right thing to do.....maybe just to say goodbye.
513 tumbled end over end after the blades came off. In the initial mid-air
the Hook blades cut the FAC in half killing the Air Force pilot on impact..
513 was in a steep climbing left hand bank. The FAC was in a steep left
hand bank also. This meant he could only see forward, right and up, or left
and down. The crew in 513 could only see forward and up, right and up, or
left and down. They couldn't see left and up because of the steep bank and
the FAC couldn't see right and down because of his steep bank and so they
collided
513 hit the ground flat on the belly of the a/c and the impact broke the
cockpit off clean just behind the forward pylon and it bounced about 100
feet forward of the rest of the a/c. The remainder of the chinook exploded
on impact and was engulfed in flames. We landed as close as we could and my
crew chief went over to check the cockpit. Both Al and Tommy were still in
the cockpit and were dead. We were in iIndian country so we took off and
orbited until we could get some troops flown out to secure the area then we
went back to Chu Lai where we were staying TDY.
Before we went to Vietnam, I flew 513 most of the time and got to be good
friends with Jim Stacy (crew chief). WO-1 Jerry Yost and I flew 513 from
Ft. Sill to California to ship it to Vietnam in November of 1968. Coming
out of El Paso on the second day of the trip our internal fuel bladder came
apart and flooded the inside of the a/c with JP-4. We did a power on
auto-rotation and landed safely and ran like hell. Got it all drained out
and then discovered that in the excitement we had landed in Mexico. Ooops.
I gave Jim some stick time on that trip and he was doing good with flying.
He wanted to go to flight school after his tour in VN.
On the morning of August 2, 1969 before we launched, the maintenance NCO
took Jim Stacy over to the Red Cross to pick up a telegram......His wife had
given birth to twin girls. We razzed him about his instant family all
morning. And then he died.
from Mike Maloy, July 2000.
This record was last updated on 07/16/2009
This information is available on CD-ROM.
Additional information is available on KIAs at http://www.coffeltdatabase.org
Please send additions or corrections to: The VHPA Webmaster Gary Roush.
KIA statistics
Return to the KIA panel date index
Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023
Copyright © 1998 - 2023 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association