More detail on this person: THE LOSS OF
HH-3F 1471 AND ITS CREW August 7, 1981 By
Ken Freeze Republished By Permission
Alaska - The Last Frontier
There are few regions in the world as hazardous to
fly in as Alaska. Besides the tremendous distances
between points of habitation, and extremes in
terrain, Alaska has weather that might be sunny
and calm one minute, then change to near-zero
visibility with hurricane force winds and high
seas the next.
The Coast Guard has long recognized the hazards
of flying in Alaska. Thus any pilot who flies in
Alaska can only command an aircraft after
receiving additional training and experience,
sometimes taking as long as six months. But
sometimes, no matter how hard they train or how
much experience they have, it still isn't
enough.
Such was the case in the early morning hours of
August 7, 1981 when the crew of the Coast Guard
HH-3F helicopter #1471 from Air Station Kodiak
sacrificed their lives while going to the aid of
another.
A Lone Fisherman
Skip Holden had hitchhiked to Alaska from
California with his future wife after graduating
from high school in the late `60s. After working
years in canneries, he had finally saved enough
money to purchase a commercial salmon fishing
boat and license. Homeported in Cordova, Alaska,
Holden made his living by fishing the Prince
William Sound in his 26-foot gill-netter called
Marlene.
As any commercial fisherman will tell you it is
not an easy life, especially in Alaska. Commercial
fishing in Alaska is widely recognized as one of
the most dangerous jobs in the world and exerts a
heavy toll of human life each year. More often
than many would like to admit, fishermen will go
out, even if the weather is threatening, because
they have bills to pay and a family to feed. <
br />
Cordova Alaska
August 6, 1981 found Holden fishing outside the
Copper River Flats east and just outside of near
Prince William Sound. The weather had been rough
for a couple of days but Holden had managed to
hold is own. However, as the day worn on, the wind
and seas began to pick up and soon a storm, the
likes of which Holden had never seen, had kicked
up, barring his return home and threatening his
very life. Just when Holden thought it couldn't
get any worst, his boat lost its steering and
began taking on water. As darkness fell, Holden
was alone in a ragging sea, at the mercy of the
90-mph winds and 15-foot seas. Calling for help
was his only hope.
Holden got on his CB radio and tried to call the
Coast Guard for help, however, his signal was too
weak to be picked-up by the Coast Guard. Luckily
for him, the fishing vessel Keeper did pick up his
distress call and relayed his distress called via
VHF-FM radio it to the Coast Guard
Communications Station in Kodiak. Now, if he could
just hold out until help arrived.
The Flight of 1471
The Rescue Coordination Center (RCC) Kodiak was
a relatively small room in the upper level of
Hanger 1 at the Coast Guard Air Station. Manned
24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from this small
room, a Controller and Assistant Controller can
direct rescue operations over nearly 4 million
square miles including the Gulf of Alaska, Bristol
Bay, Bering Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. While late
evenings and early mornings were often quiet, a
crack of a radio or the ring of a telephone often
set in motion search and rescue missions where
Coast Guard men and women risked their lives to
save others.
It was early in the evening on the 6th when one
such call came in. The Communications Station
Kodiak had passed Holden's relayed distress call
to the RCC. Helicopter 1471 was already in the air
on a local training mission and was alerted of the
distress call. On board were Lt. Ernest (Pat)
Rivas, pilot; Lt. Joseph Spoja, co-pilot; AM1
Scott Finfrock and AT3 John Snyder, Jr.
Soon, Coast Guard 1471 was airborne headed out
across the Gulf of Alaska, first for a refueling
stop in Cordova and then on to assist Holden
aboard his boat.
Since the location of the boat was far off shore,
it was standard procedure for a Coast Guard C-130
to escort the helicopter in the unthinkable event
that something might go wrong. The helicopter
arrived in the area and was able to locate the
Marlene. With down steering, no engine and very
poor communications the only choice was to get
Holden off the boat.
As the C-130 circles overhead, it relayed messages
from the helicopter to the Rescue Coordination
Center at Kodiak. It was reported that the crew of
the 1471 was having difficulty getting the hoist
down to the boat. After struggling for well over
an hour, Lt Rivas decided it just couldn't be done
in the high seas and hurricane force winds.
However, before the 1471 was to leave the scene,
they would try to drop a radio to Holden to
improve communications between him and other
rescue units.
The painting "That Others May Live" by Arden Von
Dewitz, depicts the rescue attempt by 1471.
Suddenly, all communications from the helicopter
was broken. On board the C-130 the crew started
picking up the warbling sound of an Emergency
Location Transmitter (ELT) in their headsets.
They knew immediately that something had gone
terribly wrong. The crew of the C-130 immediately
notified the RCC at the Air Station Kodiak.
Aircrews were alerted and a massive search and
rescue effort was launched for the helicopter and
its four crewmen. As the rescue efforts were
getting underway for the crew of 1471, Holden,
still onboard the Marlene, managed to regain
control and eventually made it back to his home in
Cordova.
Throughout Friday, the Coast Guard used aircraft
from Kodiak and Air Station Sitka, along with the
Coast Guard cutters Jellison and Campbell to
search the icy waters of Prince William Sound.
Also assisting in the search were aircraft from
the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage.
Saturday, a Coast Guard helicopter located two
bodies on the beach at Montague Island. They were
positively identified as Rivas and Snyder, the
lost aircraft's radioman. By this time, two Exxon
tankers, along with the vessel Aleutian Developer,
were assisting in the search for the downed
helicopter and the two missing crewmen.
At 1 p.m. Sunday, the fishing vessel Daryl J.
contacted the Coast Guard, reporting it had found
what it believed to be the missing HH-3F in the
McPherson Range, a narrow passage, of Naked
Island. A C-130 from Kodiak immediately flew over
the area and confirmed that it was indeed the
missing aircraft. It was floating upside down in
shallow water. The Coast Guard Cutter Sedge
arrived later that afternoon, but upon inspection
found no trace of the two remaining crewmen.
A ground search of Naked Island also yielded
negative results.
By Monday, search units had discovered an inflated
life raft, a survival suit in its storage bag and
the hood to a wetsuit on the shore of Long Island,
10 miles west of the helicopter's location. That
day a National Guard helicopter also arrived on
scene with the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star to
assist in the recovery of 1471.
That evening the National Guard helicopter hoisted
the downed HH-3F onto the deck of the Polar Star
for transportation to Kodiak. As water was still
pouring from the helicopter, photographs of the
instrument panel of the helicopter were taken in
the hope that they might reveal some clues into
what went wrong. The Polar Star then began its
journey to Kodiak where the helicopter would be
examined in an attempt to discover the cause of
the crash.
By Wednesday, despite and intensive search effort
by the Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol, and several
Coast Guard Auxiliary boats, the fate of the
remaining crewmen was still in question. The
following morning, however, a Coast Guard
helicopter discovered the body of Finfrock, the
flight mechanic from the ill-fated HH-3F.
Finfrock, who had apparently been able to struggle
into a wetsuit before his death, was located and
recovered on the southeast shore of Naked Island
in Prince William Sound.
The next day, a Coast Guard HH-3F found a
right-hand glove in the vicinity of Disk Island. A
ground search of Montague Island followed, but to
no avail.
By Saturday, Aug. 15, after 10 days of combined
effort by the Coast Guard and other assisting
agencies, the active search was suspended. The
body of Lt. Joseph Spoja was never recovered.
In the days that followed, the 1471 as well as the
bodies of three of the crewmen were returned to
Kodiak. At the Air Station, an accident
investigation board was formed to determine the
case of the accident. The conclusion was that the
helicopter's tail rotor contacted the water
causing the aircraft to become uncontrollable and
crashed into the water. The crew drowned after
escaping the inverted helicopter.
Copyright c 2002 Check Six
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