More detail on this person: O-2 crash during
Red Flag exercise in NV. Survived crash but died
before rescued. Can't recall date very well...in
the neighborhood of '77-'79. At the time, John was
assigned to Tactical Air Support Squadron (he was
a Forward Air Controller) based at Davis-Montham
AFB, Tucson. I believe he was flying out of Nellis
at the time of the accident. I believe he was in
the back seat of an O-2, flying with another
squadron pilot in front seat. Crash occurred on
Nellis ranges North of LAS. There were no known
witnesses to the accident. Prevailing theory was
that they flew the aircraft up a box canyon and
had insufficient climb/turn capability to get out.
Aircraft hit the side of canyon near the rim.
Front seater killed on impact and John was
severely injured. I don't recall that weather was
believed to have played a part in the (original)
accident, but from this point, weather was
definitely a factor in search and rescue efforts.
Over the course of the next 2 or 3 days I believe
there were three crashes of search aircraft with 3
fatalities. Very low ceilings/visibility over
ranges made a mess of search and rescue
operation.
One crash involved a Civil Air Patrol aircraft
with a retired USAF O6 and his son. Both fatals. I
think there were 2 crashes of helos with one
fatality although I am vague on this. When the
wreckage was located, John was found dead nearby
having crawled out of the aircraft. I believe
post mortem revealed that he had survived until
approximately 24 hours before wreckage located.
This accident was a topic of safety briefings
throughout USAF Tactical flying world both on
account of apparent bad judgment resulting in the
original crash and apparent overzealousness of
some search crews resulting in subsequent
crashes.
Provided by Joe Kane, July 1998.
Anthony John Rosa '64
Three Planes Down In 'Sagebrush Triangle'
LAS VEGAS , Nev. (UPI) -
Experts Sunday removed live rockets dropped on
the desert by a downed military plane and
recovered the bodies of two officers, but bad
weather halted the search for a survivor of
another crash. Searchers Saturday found the
wreckage of the two planes and a third that also
went down last week in an area dubbed the
"Sagebrush Triangle" after the "Bermuda Triangle"
of the Atlantic Ocean .
Two Air Force officers in a military plane that
crashed searching for the armed craft were found
dead Saturday. An off-duty colonel who crashed in
a private plane was rescued, but his 21-year-old
son was missing. Ordinance teams had to remove
live phosphorous rockets from the site where an
0-2 Skymaster plane crashed during a military
training mission Jan 30 before they could recover
the bodies of the crew.
The dead officers in the plane that took off from
Nellis Air Force Base were identified as Capt.
Anthony Rosa of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base,
Ariz. , and Capt. Victor Villelunga of Bergstrom
Air Force Base, Tex.
But near-blizzard weather conditions temporarily
halted the air-and-ground search for Michael
Helton, hurt in the crash Thursday of a Piper
Cherokee in Wallace Canyon north of the
11,000-foot snowcapped Charleston Peak.
His father, Lt. Col Billy Helton, 46, of North
Little Rock , Ark. , wandered in the mountains for
two days before he was rescued. He was reported
in stable condition at a nearby Air Force
hospital.
Capt. Lawrence Wilson of Bergstrom and Capt.
Virgil Johnson of Davis-Monthan were killed in the
crash Friday of their Skymaster spotter plane a
mile west of Charleston Peak . It went down while
looking for the other two aircraft. Following the
second 0-2 crash, all Skymaster planes in the 12th
Air Force were grounded to determine if the
equipment was faulty.
A search helicopter, hovering at a low altitude,
also crashed Saturday but none of the six crewmen
was hurt. More than 40 aircraft and several
hundred men on foot and in vehicles were used at
the height of the search.
From the Logansport Pharo Tribune, February 4,
1978
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