| Date: 25 April 1969 |
| Aircraft type: EC-121R Bat Cat |
| Serial Number: 67-21493 |
| Military Unit: 554 RS, 553 RW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Korat |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Col Emerson Earl Heller (KWF) |
| Maj Paul R Lunsford (KWF) |
| Lt Col William Carl McCormick (KWF) |
| Maj Thomas Martin Brandom (KWF) |
| Capt George Ray Kidd (KWF) |
| 1Lt John Andrew Marsh (KWF) |
| TSgt James Homer Belflower (KWF) |
| TSgt Albert Nolan Booker (KWF) |
| TSgt Warren Cephus Delaney (KWF) |
| TSgt Kenneth Wayne Fowler (KWF) |
| SSgt Jerald C Davis (KWF) |
| SSgt Paul Faulk (KWF) |
| SSgt James Darrell Moore (KWF) |
| Sgt Mitchel Messing (KWF) |
| Sgt Mark Mason Steeley (KWF) |
| Sgt William Donald Stepp (KWF) |
| A1C Michael Joseph Cotterill (KWF) |
| A1C Ronald Charles Deforrest (KWF) |
| An EC-121R Bat Cat aircraft crashed two minutes after taking off from Korat on an operational mission on the afternoon of the 25th killing all 18 crew on board. The aircraft took off in a thunderstorm and the pilot requested vectors to the right in order to clear the storm. The aircraft climbed to about 500 feet against a 20-knot headwind before flying into turbulence and a severe wind shear that changed the headwind into a 60-knot tailwind. The pilot lost control and could not recover before the aircraft hit the ground in a rice paddy and exploded as it hit trees and broke up. The base HH-43 Pedro was scrambled when the tower could not get a response from the EC-121 and the wreckage was located about four miles southwest of Korat airbase. Lt Col Heller was a very experienced pilot with 5,583 flying hours to his credit, including 1,109 in the C-121. He had also flown the H-19 Chickasaw helicopter in the 1950s. The co-pilot, Maj Lunsford, had 4,388 hours in the C-121 and 6,607 hours in total. This aircraft had started life as a WV-2 with the US Navy and had flown from Barbers Point NAS in Hawaii for several years before being converted to EC-121R configuration for the USAF. |
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