Helicopter CH-46A 153996

Information on U.S. Marine Corps helicopter CH-46A tail number 153996
Date: 11/29/1969
Incident number: 69112964.KIA
Unit: HMM-364
This was a Combat incident. This helicopter was UNK
This was a Rescue and Recovery mission for Medical Evacuation
Unknown this helicopter was Unknown at 0100 feet and UNK knots.
South Vietnam
UTM grid coordinates: AT977348 (To see this location on a map, go to https://legallandconverter.com/p50.html and search on Grid Reference 49PAT977348)
Helicopter took 1 hits from:
Systems damaged were: PERSONNEL
Casualties = 07 DOI . .
Unknown impact on flight.
Unknown as to mission impact.
Original source(s) and document(s) from which the incident was created or updated: Defense Intelligence Agency Helicopter Loss database. Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center Helicopter database. Also: MISC, OPERA, POPASMOKE INCIDENT (Operations Report. Miscellaneous. )
Summary: Synchronization shaft between the transmissions failed allowing the intermeshing rotor blades to make contact destroying the helicopter.
Loss to Inventory

Crew Members:
AC 1LT KOZAI KENNETH BRUCE KOHEI KIA
CP 1LT REARDON DENNIS JOSEPH KIA
MD HM3 GARRETT JAMES MICHAEL KIA
CE SGT MATTINGLY JOHN EUGENE KIA
G CPL LEFFLER RICHARD JOHN KIA

Passengers and/or other participants:
CPL PARSONS HENRY BENNETT III, MC, G, KIA
CDR LEDERMAN MELVIN, NA, PX, KIA

War Story:
The POPASMOKE incident reads: Systems failure - failure of the synchronization shaft running between the forward and aft rotor head transmissions. This allowed the intermeshing rotor blades to make contact with each other and sheared them off while the aircraft was in flight. The total destruction of the aircraft made it virtually impossible to determine if the synchronization shaft failure was due to direct enemy action or simply a mechanical failure. Information of this incident provided by F.A. Gulledge, Jr. Major USMC(Ret); David Bjork, Major USMC(Ret)

This record was last updated on 04/15/2013

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Date posted on this site: 08/17/2025