| Date: 3 October 1968 |
| Aircraft type: C-7B Caribou |
| Serial Number: 63-9753 |
| Military Unit: 537 TAS, 483 TAW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Phu Cat |
| Name(s): |
| Capt Wayne Philip Bundy (KWF) |
| 1Lt Ralph Schiavone (KWF) |
| SSgt Donald Gene Cleaver (KWF) |
| SSgt James Kenneth Connor (KWF) |
| 9 US Army passengers, names unknown (KWF) |
| A C-7 collided with an Army CH-47A Chinook helicopter 66-19041 of the 228th Combat Support Aviation Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, near Camp Evans. The Caribou took off from Camp Evans and made a climbing right hand turn before reaching the end of the runway. The CH-47, flown by CW2 T E Johnson and WO1 R L Conroy, was approaching Camp Evans from LZ Nancy on a regular shuttle flight with troops and mail and the two aircraft collided at 1,100 feet. One of the Chinook’s rotor blades sliced through the Caribou’s cockpit and another blade hit the port engine. The Caribou spiralled into the ground and the Chinook’s rear rotors separated and struck the helicopter’s fuselage causing it to fall to the ground and explode. All four crew and nine passengers were killed in the Caribou and the five crew and six passengers were killed in the Chinook. This was the worst of a number of airspace control incidents during the war. Unfortunately several of these incidents involved the Caribous which the Army had turned over to USAF control in 1967. |
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