Helicopter CH-47A 66-19064


Information on U.S. Army helicopter CH-47A tail number 66-19064
The Army purchased this helicopter 0367
Total flight hours at this point: 00002251
Date: 09/12/1970
Incident number: 700912141ACD Accident case number: 700912141 Total loss or fatality Accident
Unit: B/228 AVN
This was a Accident incident.
The station for this helicopter was Bear Cat in South Vietnam
UTM grid coordinates: YT183498 (To see this location on a map, go to https://legallandconverter.com/p50.html and search on Grid Reference 48PYT183498)
Number killed in accident = 5 . . Injured = 0 . . Passengers = 0
costing 1247317
Source(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Army Aviation Safety Center database.
Loss to Inventory

Crew Members:
P WO1 KOWALSKI LEONARD J JR KIA
P MAJ LANG CHARLES VANDERBILT KIA
FE SGT NAHER STEPHEN CHARLES KIA
G CPL GENES LUTHER ALLEN KIA
CE SP4 ENMAN DEVON MARDIC KIA


Accident Summary:

Aircraft 66-19064 left Song Be at approximately 1500 hours with a sling load of four conexes. The conexes were empty except for approximately 500 pounds of lumber in one of them. There was no internal load. The mission was a backhaul from Song Be to Bien Hoa. The aircraft was then to continue south to Bearcat and shut down for an intermediate inspection. The aircraft was returning to home station early in the day because a requested five hour time extension had been refused. Aircraft 064 was flying at an altitude of 3000 feet and was east of Phuoc Vinh when he apparently had difficulty controlling the aircraft. The pilot transmitted a mayday call at 1535 hours which was taped by Phu Loi tower. (See editor's note below) Witnesses state that the aircraft descended out of control with varying degrees of attitude and heading difficulty. The load of four conexes was never released. The load apparently contacted the aircraft at less that 1000 feet of altitude. Shortly thereafter the aircraft burst into flames and continued into the trees. Witnesses are not consistent regarding the attitude of the aircraft as it entered the trees.

Note: CPT Lang was my roommate and I took over command of B Company as a result of this accident, and had the unpleasant task of making a copy of the Mayday call from the Bearcat tower tape. The Accident Investigation Board requested it because no one else had heard/recorded the call. From: Patrick R. Glass, LTC, US Army (Retired)

This record was last updated on 09/16/2016


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Date posted on this site: 11/13/2023


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