MIER JULES F

WO1 Jules "Buzz" F Mier was a potential VHPA member who died after his tour in Vietnam on 03/27/2003 at the age of 56.3 from A/C accident
Flight Classes 69-13 and 69-11
Date of Birth 12/05/1946
Served in the U.S. Army
This information was provided by James L. Riseden

More detail on this person: State: Helicopter hunts for shuttle debris halted after fatal crash BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON - Helicopters searching for space shuttle debris in East Texas were grounded Friday after a U.S. Forest Service chopper looking for pieces of Columbia crashed in the Angelina National Forest, killing two men aboard the aircraft and injuring three others.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigator to the remote site accessible only over muddy, rut-filled stretches of trail about 35 miles east of Lufkin. All-terrain vehicles were brought in to assist crews trying to clear a road into the forest. "Reports were that it lost power to the rotors," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman John Clabes. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said Friday two witnesses told officials the helicopter's engine just stopped and it took a nose dive about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Charles Krenek, 48, an aviation specialist with the Texas Forest Service, was seated next to Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters' pilot, Jules F. "Buzz: Mier Jr., whose Arizona employer had been hired by the U.S. Forest Service to help in the search. Both men were killed. Three others seated behind them in the Bell 407 helicopter survived but remained hospitalized Friday at Memorial Medical Center of East Texas in Lufkin, about 125 miles northeast of Houston. Two workers based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Ronnie Dale and Richard Lange, were in fair condition. Dale had a punctured lung and Lange had shoulder and hip injuries, Keefe said. Matt Tschacher of the U.S. Forest Service in South Dakota was in stable condition, said a spokeswoman at the hospital. Keefe said Tschacher suffered a spinal injury.

Papillon chief pilot Chuck Rush said Mier, 56, who spent a decade teaching flight instrumentation after serving as an Army pilot in Vietnam, was doing what he loved to do. "He was an extremely precise individual," Rush said. "He used to be an accountant. When you asked him a question, he would say, 'Let me get back to you on that," and then he would get back to you with this huge mound of graphs and charts." The challenge of finding shuttle debris by spending hours at a time in the air searching a 2-mile grid along lines marked 30 feet apart attracted Mier to the effort, Rush said.

This information was last updated 05/18/2016

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Date posted on this site: 10/23/2024


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