A Bent Shark

Larry had written on the back of this photo: "Shark 105. I believe that Chuck Miller was the pilot or AC. Shot down by a .51 cal. north of Duc Pho, near Quang Ngai."

Webmaster note: According to the data on the aircraft tailnumber page, Shark 105 was a UH-1C, complete serial number 66-15105. It was manufactured in April 1967, arrived in the 174th in July 1967 with no hours on the airframe, and it was lost to the inventory in January 1968 with 536 hours in the logbook. It's not known just when this crash happened or if this is the crash in January 1968 when the aircraft was lost to the unit.

Although it doesn't really look too bad at first glance, other than the obviously broken blades, there is major damage to this aircraft. Note the angle of the tail boom that is barely visible. It has been broken where it connects to the aircraft body, reflecting a significant vertical impact with the ground. The skids are clearly flattened. The sudden stoppage that the main rotor blades sustained would cause a backlash throughout all the gearing in the rotor assembly and transmission that would require the entire drive train to have to be removed and replaced. The rear blade being broken "downward" also would indicate low rotor RPM and high vertical rate upon impact with the ground. The damage is probably more than could be repaired at the unit level, and it's likely Shark 105 would have been returned for depot overhaul either in-country or to Corpus Christy, Texas.

(Photo Property of Larry Martin. Duc Pho, 1967)