GI Flashbacks: 1973 Camp Page Helicopter Crash
A comment I recently received discussed a helicopter crash that occurred back in 1973 at Camp Page. What was strange about this helicopter crash was that it involved family members of the pilot. Digging through the Stars & Stripes archives I was able to locate the details about this crash. The crash happened on April 7, 1973 when the pilot of the UH-1 Huey helicopter from the 55th Aviation Company crashed into the Han River near Camp Page:
The above article is from the July 12, 173 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper.
Inside of the helicopter was the pilot, his wife and son, and two soldiers. Tragically the pilot’s 18 month old son died in the crash along with one of the soldier crew members. The two bodies were recovered by two USFK personnel who happened to be scuba certified. Talk about a horrible tasking to be stuck with:
The above article is from the April 11, 1973 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper.
The pilot who survived the crash would go on to be medically retired and wrote a book about his helicopter flying experiences in Vietnam. He then became an ordained minister and currently lives in Nebraska with his wife that survived the helicopter crash. I could not find anything that said what caused the crash, but regardless a pretty sad story that fortunately the pilot and his wife were able to rebound from the loss of their son.
Note: You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link:
I had vaguely heard rumors about this accident as a young W-1 while assigned to B company, 2d Avn at Cp Casey back in 87. There were many rumors of UH-1 crews flying out away from the airfields and loading up their Yobos for a joy ride but I never saw it happen. Strictly forbidden but possible to do provided no one blabbed or you didn’t clip a wire, tree or terrain feature flying nap of the earth. Thanks for providing details.