4 Presumed Dead as Navy Copter Falls Into Sea on Training Flight

Four crew members are presumed to have died in the crash of a Navy SH-3H anti-submarine helicopter that went down while conducting a routine training mission about 80 miles off the coast of San Diego, authorities said Tuesday.

The crash is believed to have occurred late Monday or early Tuesday, said Fred Wilson, a spokesman at the North Island Naval Air Station. Search crews found partial wreckage shortly after daylight Tuesday.

The Navy ended the search for survivors Tuesday evening. Investigators were continuing to seek the cause of the mishap.

Identified as being aboard were the co-pilot, Lt. (j.g.) Bean A. Patrick, 26, of Hesperia, Mich., and two crewmen, John J. Taylor, 22, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., and John E. Palmquist, 22, of Columbus, Ohio. All three lived in San Diego County.

The identity of the fourth airman was withheld pending notification of relatives.

There was no immediate word on the recovery of bodies.

The San Diego-based helicopter, operating from the aircraft carrier Ranger, was believed to be practicing search and rescue operations when the crash occurred, Wilson said. The aircraft was 8 to 10 nautical miles from the carrier at the time, the spokesman said.

The SH-3H, known as the Sea King, the Navy’s standard anti-submarine warfare helicopter, has an excellent safety record, Wilson said. The Navy spokesman could recall only one other recent crash of a Pacific Fleet Sea King, an incident in the western Pacific in November 1987 that left one crewman dead.

The helicopter that crashed near San Diego was declared overdue shortly after midnight Monday when it missed a required radio check-in with the carrier, Wilson said. The carrier was then unable to contact the missing aircraft, triggering an all-night search involving three aircraft and three ships, and leading to the discovery of the wreckage.

Modernized Many Times

The sonar-equipped SH-3H is designed both to detect and destroy enemy submarines. The basic model has been in operation for more than 20 years, although it has been modernized many times and is scheduled to be replaced next year by the state-of-the-art SH-60F, which, like the current model, is built by the Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Technologies Corp.

Six squadrons of the Sea Kings are now based in San Diego, which is the headquarters for the commander of the Pacific Fleet’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Wing.

Apart from its anti-submarine role, the SH-3H helicopters also conduct search-and-rescue operations. The helicopters also rescue ditched fliers and perform other emergency functions during carrier flight operations.