The Ogden Standard-Examiner (Ogden, UT.)
Tue, Mar 13, 1973, page 25

Crewmen Injured in Copter Crash

Three crewmen escaped serious injuries Monday afternoon when their H-43 Husky helicopter on a routine training mission crash-landed at Ogden Airport.

The crewmen are members of the 1550th Air Crew Training and Testing Division at Hill Air Force Base. One officer was hospitalized overnight. Two others were treated for minor injuries at the base hospital and released. Lt. Grover E. Myers, a student pilot, was still hospitalized this morning.

Two other officers, Capt. James Decarbo, instructor, and flight mechanic SSgt. Charles L. Byrd, were treated and released.

The three-man Husky crew was on a practice mission at the airport when the crash occurred. The helicopter went down at the intersection of runways 3-4 and 3-21, causing normal airport traffic to be rerouted to other runways. At the time of the accident, the crew was practicing auto-rotation, a procedure used to land a helicopter when the engine fails.

A Hill AFB spokesman said there was no equipment failure but the pilot had cut the power in a practice run. The aircraft apparently fell only a short distance. It is believed to be repairable.

Another helicopter crew airport fire control personnel, Ogden City police, and ambulance unit and Hill AFB units were on the scene to assist in rescue operations.

A board of officers will be formed to investigate the cause of the crash, the base spokesman said.