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LIKE
THE SAYING GOES, some days you can't make a crying dime and just
when you think you're on top of the heap. ..blooie! somebody kicks
out your chocks. Take the recent case of one-each lst Lieutenant
Keith R. Droegemeier. At the time of this little story he was with
Detachment Three of the 24th Helicopter Squadron,
stationed at Itazuke, Japan. By some rather adroit maneuvering,
Droegemeier and his co-pilot, Lieutenant Albert E. Churcher,
managed to save three fishermen from almost certain death. The
whole thing started at 8 o'clock one stormy evening. The
chopper-hopper squadron received a call from ADCC stating that the
Japanese Coast Guard had notified 'them that a small boat with
three men aboard was in distress just off the coast of northern
Kyushu. Because of high winds and waves, the Coast Guard had been
unsuccessful in affecting a rescue. Would Uncle Sam please send a
helicopter? Just like that. Ever since these frantic palm trees ,
first came into being, the machines have earned their salt in
rescue work. This evening was no exception. An H-21 was
immediately dispatched to the trouble scene in spite of the fact
that it weren't a fit night for man or beast or even a bird for
that matter. Just to complicate matters, there were no lights to
go by, no horizon, no nuthin'. Fortunately the crew chief, Airman
Frank W. Linhart was able to use a makeshift searchlight as an
assist in finding the drifting boat and after about an hour they
zeroed in on the craft. For almost 40 minutes Lt. Droegemeier
hovered over the boat as it pitched and rolled in the high seas.
We've seen some of the storms down in that particular area and
they can be real hairy. Trying to make a pick-up during daylight
hours would be rough enough under such conditions, and at night.
..ugh ! Finally the crew succeeded in getting the three weary and
wet fisherman on board the chopper and for, this feat of superior
airmanship we say WELL DONE gentlemen.
Right there the
Droegemeier story should end, but, fate decreed otherwise. At 0900
hours the following morning, Lieut. Droegemeier was again
scheduled to fly. This was to be a normal AC&W resupply
mission, hopping around and over some rather nasty terrain to the
site. His co-pilot for the trip was Lieut. William J . Johnson and
S!Sgt R. C. Boyd as flight engineer. At the last minute one
passenger was put aboard and off they went, bouncing around like a
yo-yo. If any of the four men had been blessed with a crystal ball
they'd have called off the flight right then and there. Things
were progressively becoming rougher until finally, Droegemeier
decided to get out over the sea. This helped a bit, at least it
wasn't so confounded bumpy. As he and the crew settled back all
hell broke loose. At an altitude of about 800 feet and airspeed
pegged at 75 knots, the chopper suddenly pitched to the
right,
nosed down and started to roll over. As a matter of fact it rolled
through approximately 135 degrees before stopping. That's just 45
degrees from being inverted and certainly not a normal attitude
for a chopper. Droegemeier immediately applied full left cyclic
control, fully reduced collective pitch and applied first left
then right rudder. The machine went plummeting downhill, on its
back, for 500 feet or so, then quite suddenly came out of the
steep bank with the aft end skidding around to the right and the
nose still low. At this point the good Lieutenant took the best
positive action. He neutralized everything. The H-21 fishtailed a
bit and then gradually resumed a normal attitude. They were now up
about 100 feet above the water and headed 180 degrees off course.
Although somewhat shattered by the experience, Lieut. Droegemeier
had the presence of mind to transmit a Mayday. At least they could
expect some help sooner or later. Logically enough, the pilot
reasoned that something had come unglued in the control system.
However, he felt that he had to do something. ..anything, rather
than just sit there, so very carefully he tried to ease the bird
into forward flight. Like we said at the start of this article,
some days you just can't make a dime. No sooner had the aircraft
climbed for about a hundred feet when bingo, they hit the jackpot.
The machine pitched to the right and down again. This time the
maneuver was less violent because of decreased airspeed and the
pilot was able to make a recovery a few feet above the water.
Unfortunately we are not permitted to print the comments of the
crew at this point. They were somewhat salty, to say the least. It
was here that these somewhat shook troops decided to remain close
to the water. They didn't want too much momentum should a repeat
performance occur and although the ocean was far from calm, it
still looked more homey than the thought of another uncontrolled
roll through space. Droegemeier reasoned that perhaps they could
hover and gradually drift toward shore, using an on-shore wind as
a motivating agent. Another problem now presented itself. The
shore line had a rock beach about 20 feet wide. Behind that, sheer
cliffs went straight up for some 300 feet. On either side of the
cliff area, where the land sloped gently to the sea, generations
of Japanese people had built their homes and tilled the soil. In
other words, it was what we call a congested area. Certainly NO
place to dump a recalcitrant mixmaster. So, that left but one
choice. Try to hit the 20-foot beach and preferably, in one piece.
Things went along pretty good for a few minutes. The on-shore wind
was slowly drifting the chopper toward 1and and for a while it
appeared that the idea might work. But, you can probably see
what's coming. No sooner did the crew begin to hope for a
successful landfall when whapp! , the damn thing rolled over
again. This time the landing gear actually dished into the drink
on the rollout and hardly had a recovery been made before it
rolled again. This time it was for keeps. Barely 200 feet from
shore, the H-21 fell into the sea with a resounding plop.
Fortunately everyone escaped with minimum injuries and swam to
shore.
As we see it from here, there are two interesting
aspects about this accident. First, Lieut Droegemeier displayed
excellent planning throughout the emergency and did everything
humanly possible to save his machine. His analysis of the
situation and positive action reflects great credit not only on
the pilot himself, but his organization as well. It is evident
that training and more training is the order of the day. Only by
training can any man nope !to know his machine and get the most
out of it. Secondly, the fact that Lieut. Droegemeier was able to
get the chopper almost all the way to shore made it possible to
salvage the wreck and and pin-point the accident cause factor. As
you have suspected all along, this was material failure in the
control system. A severed left Iateral control cable was the
culprit. The cable had become internally corroded where it passed
over a pulley. Investigators reasoned that the continuous flexing
of the cable as it passed over the pulley caused the corrosion
prevention compound to work out of the interior of the cable.
Visual inspection, in this case, could not detect the internal
damage. The cure, of course, is replacing carbon steel cables with
those made of stainless steel and in the interim, try to work out
a more satisfactory method of inspection. As so often happens,
this accident pointed up the way to prevent others. All H-21s were
grounded until thorough cable inspections could be made and more
were discovered on the verge of corroding through. It's the hard
way to learn, but at least Droegemeier's actions made it possible
to find the cause factor. For this, we of the FLYER say WELL DONE
again, even though the aircraft was lost.
PACIFIC FLYER
APRIL 1958
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