History

The Bell UH-1 is the most widely used military helicopter. Officially the UH-1 series is the Iroquois. When the Army adopted its own two-letter designation system, it became the HU-1 (Helicopter Utility), which led to the nickname “Huey.” The DOD standard designation system reversed this to UH-1, the first designation in the new DOD helicopter series. With larger engines and increased capacity, the UH was developed through successive models.

The U.S. Army began shipping them to Vietnam in 1963. The Marine Hueys began Vietnam service in 1964. The Huey was the work horse of the Viet Nam war. It’s many missions, included air assault, armed patrol and escort, command and control, troop/cargo transport, combat reconnaissance support, amphibious assault, light utility missions, and medical evacuation. Army, Navy and Marine Corps Hueys evacuated 378 thousand casualties between 1965 and 1969.

Bell and licensed firms like Italy’s Agusta (eventually bought by Bell) have built more than 15,000 Hueys. It is the most numerous helicopter ever built and the most numerous aircraft built since 1945 except for the Soviet-era Antonov An-2 biplane transport. The Huey is operated by more than 60 air forces throughout the world in a wide variety of roles, everything from VIP transport to flying ambulance to attack helicopter. It has continued in service well past the five decades since the first Huey lifted off the ground.

Accident case number: 691016041

Chalk 3 aircraft (67-17832) in right turn flew too close to lead aircraft. (68-15478). Chalk 3’s main rotor blades made contact with the main rotor blades of the lead a/c. There was incident damage to the main rotor blades of both aircraft

• Date: 10/16/1969
• U.S. Army helicopter UH-1H tail number: 67-17832
• The Army purchased this helicopter for: $1068
• Total flight hours at this point: 00001398
• Unit: 187 AHC
• Station for this helicopter: Tay Ninh in
• Killed in accident: 0
• Injured: 0
• Passengers: 0
• Costing: $4792
• Crew Members: AC O2 RW SCHEFFIN

Source(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Army Aviation Safety Center database.

Accident Summary

Aircraft was flying Chalk Two, in a flight of seven aircraft, in a staggered trail right formation. On takeoff from Tay Ninh base camp, the pilot , Cpt. Surridge, had control of the aircraft. The flight flew directly to the PZ. The PZ had four to six foot tall elephant grass in it and many tree stumps and a few trees scattered around in it. As the flight approached the PZ the pilot, asked the aircraft commander which load of troops was his, because the troops were scattered and partly hidden by the tall elephant grass. The aircraft commander said the troops they were supposed to pick up were by the marking smoke. On short final to the PZ the pilot had to swing out to the right of the flight to avoid a tall tree in his flight path. After flying around the tree the pilot turned his aircraft slightly back to the left to get back in the flight and continued his approach to the PZ. Cpt. Surridge was confused as to which load of troops was his, because there were two marking smokes in the PZ, and continued his approach to the wrong load of troops. On short final the aircraft commander realized the pilot was going to the wrong load of troops.

The aircraft commander at this time put his hand on the cyclic and pushed it slightly to the right trying to indicate to the pilot to go to the right smoke not the left one. At this time the aircraft was in a decelerating attitude, tail low, the aircraft began to slide slip to the right and had stopped its forward motion. Just as the aircraft began its side slip to the right, still in a tail low attitude the tail rotor struck a tree stump hidden in the tall elephant grass. When the tail rotor struck the tree stump the aircraft commander immediately realized what had happened and took control of the aircraft. The aircraft commander immediately rolled off the throttle and executed a hovering autorotation. In his attempt to level the aircraft because it was in a tail low attitude the aircraft commander over controlled slightly and landed on the left front skid first. This resulted in slight damage to the left front skid on front of the cross tube. The crew exited the aircraft and began to remove all radios and weapons. They loaded the radios and weapons onto another aircraft in the PZ.