*      AFHRA document indicate crash damaged . FULL REPORT OF THIS ACCIDENT IS GIVEN BELOW   (*1)
              **     Individual aircraft history card gives repair by Thai Airways, TSMWG at Tan Son Nhut
                       AFHRA document gives repair by APRFE at Da Nang            SEE REPORT BELOW !
              ***  PEDRO 70  crashed during a rescue mission at  U Tapao  by the blast when a B-52 exploded after it crashed at
                       the runway  minutes before.
 

(*1)   59-1562 was damaged in a crash-landing on 14 June 1965, 10 miles southwest of Mukdahan, Thailand (Savannakhet, Laos).
          Full narrative of this accident is provided by the pilot, Capt. Vance E. Need :

          "We had flown a routine mission from Ubon AB to Nakhon Phanom AB and were on our return trip when the accident
            happened. At approximately 4:45 PM on June 14, 1965, we were cruising along at 1,500 feet altitude and approximately
            90 knots when there was a loud bang, flames shot out of the tail pipe of the engine and we immediately lost all power.
            I lowered the collective to the bottom and began looking for a landing spot.
            All I could see was trees except for one small cleared area. I headed for that area and made 2 emergency radio
            transmissions as we fell.  I can still remember my exact words; "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Pedro 2 going down 10 miles
            southwest of Savannakhet."  I repeated the same words the second time.
            (I never learned if my Mayday calls were received but there was no apparent rescue until the next morning).

            As we neared the cleared area we were still above tree top level so I pulled back on the stick to stop our forward motion
            and leveled the helicopter to descend straight down. As we neared the ground, I pulled up on the collective to slow our
            descent but I ran out of collective before we ran out of altitude. We hit hard enough to drive one of the rear struts through
            the fuselage and the rotor blades sheared off on the high tree stumps in the cleared area but the helicopter remained upright.
            The only injury was when my co-pilot, Captain Chuck Proft, jerked his helmet off and scratched his cheek.

         Almost immediately the helicopter was surrounded by local inhabitants who formed a circle around us and sat on their
            haunches holding various weapons including crossbows and blunderbusses.
            After about an hour the Thai border patrol came by with approximately 8 or 9 men (This was an area with guerilla activity).
            One of the men was carrying a German Luger with a long barrel (I estimated 8 inches) and he pointed it at my co-pilot and
            said   "Goodbye GI."  That was the scariest time of the entire incident.
            The Lieutenant explained that his man could not speak English and those were the only English words he knew.
            Myself and a crew member went into the town of Mukdahan with some of the patrol and my co-pilot and other crew member
            stayed at the helicopter with the remainder of the patrol. We attempted to use a local field telephone to reach Ubon AB but
            were unsuccessful.
            (I did not succeed in reaching anyone by the field telephone).
            We stayed in the home of a local official and returned to the helicopter early the next morning. Shortly thereafter we heard
            the beat of helicopter blades and I shot a flare into the air. We were soon rescued by Pedro 1.

         The accident was caused by failure of a gear in the transmission which sits immediately in front of the engine air intake.
            Pieces of the transmission gear passed through the engine and destroyed it.
            The helicopter was placed under guard and mechanics came in and broke it down into pieces which were loaded onto a
            flat bed semi-trailer. The nearby road allowed them to take the helicopter by truck to Bangkok where it was repaired by
            Thai Airways and put back into service".

updated :  01/02/2003