HH-43  crash near Udorn RTAFB, Thailand  in 1973

The story below was published in the "MAC Flyer" of March 1974

I came accross this tragic story through the website of Mr. Jim "GED" Geddes : http://www.geocities.com/seavet72/ER/HH43-1.htm     (EMail :  seavet72@yahoo.com)

It is reprinted here on request of Mr. Geddes , who hopes that you, my readers, could help him find the names of the crew members who died in this crash.
Mr. Geddes wrote me :  "I did try to figure out the date of this crash as I see you yourself did some math and read the same details as I did. That as we know would help locate a time fram and a name on THE WALL (and an accompaning BIO - usually with cause of death, unit, tour dates, NAMEs of crew, etc.). I keep looking for some link to this puzzle !!!" 

Johan Ragay , February 2003

  01/10/2003  :
To assist in finding the exact data for the referred HH-43 crash, I have compiled a review of all H-43 assignments to SEA with known accidents , crashes and losses.
Since Feb 2003 a discussion started about the date and location of the crash written down in the below article. When interpreting the text well, one can come to the conclusion that the crash must have occurred after September 1973. In the official individual aircraft history records there is no mention of an accident (repair) or a crash of a Udorn AB assigned HH-43. Actually, there was not any incident with a HH-43 anywhere in SEA after Sep 73 (according to these aircraft histories). The picture in the MAC-Flyer article appeared to have been published in two books.
1) The book by Mr. Wayne Mutza "Kaman H-43 - an illustrated history" (photo on page 70) and
2) The book by Mr. Robert LaPointe "PJs in Vietnam" (photo on page 354).
In book #1 the crash should have occurred in SEA during 1969 (photo credit U.S. AirForce)
In book #2 the photocaption states :  "unknown crash in Vietnam" (photo credit John Gerende)
Who can help in finding the date and location of this HH-43 crash ?

last update 29/01/2005