Missing Air Force Helicopter

[Nereus]

This has been missing for 3 days. It unbelievable that with all the modern electronic equipment available, such as relatively cheap ELT locator beacons, that they cannot find this aircraft, and the luckless crew on board.
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Thermal imaging to aid search for missing helicopter, men

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... copter-men

A search and rescue mission will continue four the fourth day on Tuesday for three air force officers and their UH-1 helicopter missing in Chanthaburi province since Saturday.

The air force will apply thermal imaging on the fourth day of the search for its missing helicopter and three officers on mountainous terrain in Chanthaburi province on Tuesday.

The location of the helicopter should be not too far from its Chanthaburi takeoff location because it had not yet reached a high altitude when it disappeared from radar, ACM Johm said.

[centermid7]

Not really so difficult to understand if you realize that they are only going to put one helio in the air for the so called "search and rescue" because they fear if they put anymore in the air that they will fall to earth as well.

Happened to the army in 2011. One downed helicopter ended up being THREE downed helicopters.

[Nereus]

Search teams says drone photos indicate they have been looking four days in the wrong place for a missing air force UH-1 helicopter down in rough country.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/securit ... ssion-hope

Aerial pics give chopper search mission hope

A rescue team searching for a missing air force helicopter and its three-man crew are confident they have pinpointed the site where the chopper went down after looking at photos taken by a drone.

The photo was taken near a cliff in tambon Phawa, about 4km away from the rescuers' current location, according to officers, and the place where villagers say they heard a loud crash.
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Looking for 4 days, despite reportedly knowing where it disappeared from radar. I doubt very much if this is going to have a good outcome.

[Nereus]

Missing air force helicopter found, with all crew dead

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... -crew-dead

A search and rescue team has found the wreckage of the missing air force Huey helicopter in a deep valley adjoining Chanthaburi and Rayong provinces, with all three crew members dead at the crash site, according to media reports.

The search team reached the crash site on foot at 10.23am, about 500 metres northwest of the radar station on the Rayong side of the adjoining area.
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I guess the 500 metres is just another reporting stuff up.

[StevePIraq]

How shocking that the Thai military is so incapable and unprepared, I can only imagine their planes and ships are also inadequately equipped.

You can buy a mobile tracking GPS unit for a few dollars.

[hhinner]

They probably have really effective 100,000 baht tracking units - repurposed GT200s.

[Bristolian]

A sad loss of a crew and and peoples family members. I have a good number currently serving in the Thai armed forces. I hope that the crash team are able to identify the cause and rectify it. Helecopters do not have the safest of flying records in any country.

[BOZ]

The UH-1 Huey actually has a so called "shelf life" or in technical terms airframe hours... Most of these were hand me down from US during the Vietnam war and post war times... Most would be well past their useful life and are all ticking time bombs for having catastrophic failures... I alway cringe when I see them flying over BKK or other congested areas... You wouldn't see me on one of these rattle traps... More SAR missions to come... Sad for the poor souls that have to fly these things around... Tic Tock, Tic Tock....

[Nereus]

The UH-1 Huey actually has a so called "shelf life" or in technical terms airframe hours

Well, I used to both own and fly helicopters(not UH-1),and I know of no helicopter that has a time lifed airframe.
ALL dynamic, and some structural parts, have designated retirement hours. Many of the "hand-me -down" UH-1s here had very low total hours when given to Thailand. Corrosion can be a problem in the tropics, but there are well established ways to prevent it. Of course, compliance with actual maintenance is something else.

In this particular case I suspect that the weather was more of a factor than the aircraft.