THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050381
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
A Navy helicopter had been diverted to a pleasure boat's distress call shortly before it disappeared and crashed in the Atlantic Tuesday night, killing all four crewmen aboard.
The body of one of the victims was recovered about an hour after the search began. A dozen ships and aircraft were involved in the search about 35 miles east of Cape Henry.
Some wreckage also has been recovered.
The Navy H-46 ``Sea Knight'' helicopter disappeared about 9:10 p.m. while operating 5 to 10 miles from the amphibious assault ship Guam.
All four crew members were assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Six, based at Norfolk Naval Air Station.
It was the same squadron that lost four other crewmen Jan. 10, 1994, when another H-46 crashed while operating from the amphibious assault ship Inchon.
On Feb. 18, 1994, another helicopter from the squadron, sent to the Inchon as a replacement for the first, crashed in the Indian Ocean. The four crew members were rescued.
The Navy grounded all its H-46 helicopters temporarily last year to check for cracks in their rotor transmissions. Following some repairs, they were all placed back into service.
In Tuesday's downing, the helicopter crew had been sent to the Guam earlier that day to serve as a rescue aircraft while Marine helicopter crews participated in a qualifying exercise on the Guam's flight deck.
A search party from the Guam, operating a small motor whale boat, found one of the victims Tuesday night.
An around-the-clock rescue effort, also involving the dock landing ship Portland, oiler Kalamazoo, Coast Guard cutter Point Huron and Coast Guard and Navy helicopters, located some wreckage from the aircraft, but no survivors.
The search was called off Wednesday afternoon.
The Navy identified the dead and missing men as:
Lt. Ronald J. Mobayed, 27, of Springfield, pilot.
Lt. Robert W. Vogel, 29, of Newton, Conn., pilot.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel R. Biddle, 26, of Burgoon, Ohio, an avionics electronic technician and crew chief.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric M. Hakel, 23, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., a rescue swimmer.
Biddle, whose body was recovered, was the only one in the crew who was married. He is survived by his wife and son.
The helicopter, a tandem-rotor aircraft used primarily for troop and cargo carrying, apparently responded to a distress call from a nearby sailboat, said Cmdr. Kevin Wensing, a spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Force.
``There was a sailboat in the area and a report it might have needed some assistance,'' said Wensing.
The helicopter was dispatched to investigate, Wensing said, but it was then determined, probably by radio, that the sailboat had no emergency.
``So they returned toward the Guam and sometime later crashed,'' said Wensing. ``Nobody saw the aircraft go down.''
Coast Guard officials said they did not receive a distress radio call from any pleasure boat in that area. But the helicopter crew could have been responding to an emergency flare, or some other type of call for help, said a spokesman from the 5th Coast Guard District in Portsmouth.
The H-46 series of helicopters is the Marine Corps' principal assault helicopter and is flown by the Navy primarily in a resupply role. Plans to replace the 1960-vintage helicopters have been on hold pending the procurement of the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, which is now entering production.
No cause for Tuesday's accident was known, the Navy said. An investigation is under way. ILLUSTRATION: Map
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT MILITARY ACCIDENT PLANE
FATALITIES by CNB