chapter 6 - Flying Safety -—~ Throughout the exercise the Task Group Commander and other supervisory personnel devoted mich attention to flying safety. During the period when accidents in the Eniwetok Proving Grounds were chargeable to the Task Group (21 February to 18 August 1958) a total of 18307 flying hours were achieved and four major accidents were experienced for a rate of 21.3. of note that three of the four accidents involved helicopters. It is worthy Exclusive of helicopters, the accident rate was only 6.8 per 100,000 hours of flying time. The attached chart shows our accident rate on a cumulative basis. Our four accidents involved an L-20 and three helicopters as follows: ae On the morning of 7 April the pilot of a L-20 took off with a near empty fuel tank. The engine died soon after takeoff and the pilot stalled the aircraft onto the reef. Major damage to the aircraft resulted, but there was no injury to personnel. b. On the evening of 7 April the pilot of a H-19B aircraft, in an attempt to maintain VFR flight during a heavy rain shower, lost control of his aircraft and crashed in the lagoon. A civilian passenger was drowned in this accident; the other four people aboard survived without major injury. ce On IO July 1958 an H-21B aircraft crashed into the ocean when the pilot experienced some kind of materiel failure in the control system. The failure could not be determined precisely as the aircraft sank in very deep water and could not be recovered. All people aboard the aircraft escaped with- out injury. d. On 1August 1958 an H-21B aircraft crashed near Yvonne in 35 feet of water approximately 1500 feet short of the runway. No one was injured. No passengers were aboard. The cause of the accident was the blow out of the master cylinder which severed the ignition harness of the engine. 27 AFWUHO 4