Accident Bell UH-1 Iroquois , Wednesday 4 January 1978
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Date:Wednesday 4 January 1978
Time:
Type:Silhouette image of generic UH1 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different    
Bell UH-1 Iroquois
Owner/operator:US Army
Registration:
MSN:
Fatalities:Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 8
Other fatalities:0
Aircraft damage: Destroyed
Location:Great Smoky Mountains National Park in TN near the TN & NC border -   United States of America
Phase: En route
Nature:Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:
Narrative:
The MEDEVAC helicopter at 326th Medical Battalion, Fort Campbell, KY carried a team of military personnel, 2 Smokies Park Rangers as well as a lieutenant colonel from the Civil Air Patrol.
Crashed on a rescue mission shortly after spotting one Cessna 421 downed plane near the border (it had hit on the NC side and skidded into TN).
Was turning around and hit a V-shaped lime which grabbed the rotors and torn it off.
The four survivors, including two rangers, were injured were able to explain it all.
The investigation indicates that the accident was due to a failure of the A-7 fuel control.
The four deceased persons are the Capt. John Dunnavant, Capt. Terrance Woolever, Sgt. Floyd Smith, and Lt. Col. of the Civil Air Patrol Ray Maynard.

Sources:

Scramble
Army Air Crews and many local paper reports of the day
https://smokieslife.org/2024/01/13/nightmare-on-wolf-ridge/
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/146620014/terrance-ken-woolever
http://www.armyaircrews.com/huey.html

Revision history:

Date/timeContributorUpdates
07-Sep-2010 14:30 ASN Archive
09-Nov-2022 07:21 Rodger Asai Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Country, Phase, Source, Narrative, ]
20-Feb-2025 18:16 Frédéric Goudon Updated [Source, Narrative, ]

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