Dates

Event

Constructed as a SH-3A.
Was first SH-3A airframe configured with the Bendix Corp. AN/AQS-13 Dipping Sonar.

Circa 1970

Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Navy with BuNo 152104.

Transferred to NAS Patuxent River (Test Center), MD.

Transferred to Helicopter Anti-Submarine Warfare Squadron 10 (HS-10), NAS Imperial Beach, CA.
Only had 200 hours on the airframe when received by HS-10.

Ed Springer comments: After hundreds of maintenance hours tracking down some undocumented wiring modifications from the Test Center, the aircraft was put in service.

Crashed.
HS-10 was the training squadron for all West Coast ASW sea-going squadrons. As part of the training syllabus, the sonar hydrophone was removed, a plug put in the hole and the pilot-in-training was instructed in single-engine water landings and take-offs in a nearby fresh water lake. On this particular airframes first such training mission, the pilot must have given it a little more than the prescribed amount of forward cyclic and the blade tips hit the water. The aircraft ended up submerged in the lake.

Recovered.
Ed Springer comments: A few days later, I watched it come back to NAS IB hanging from the bottom of an H-53, dripping water, with pieces of the main rotors visible and missing the tail (foldable) section). I was one of the maintenance types (AT rate) who spent so many hours getting it mission-capable, so I was quite distressed to see her crashed. She was hauled off and it was the last I saw her.

Converted to a SH-3H.

Transferred to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) with inventory number 9H042.

To Specialized Aircraft Maintenance, Davis-Monthan AFB (South Side), Tucson, AZ.
View the Location Dossier

Markings Applied: 400

4 August 2010

To US Department of State, Patrick AFB, FL with new c/r N104WR.

13 March 2017

Civil registration, N104WR, cancelled.

In the inventory of Specialized Aircraft Maintenance, Davis-Monthan AFB (South Side), Tucson, AZ.
View the Location Dossier