LAPUSH — The electrical cables that took down a Coast Guard helicopter in July, killing three of the four crewmen, will not be replaced.
The crew was flying a MH-60T Jayhawk from Astoria, Ore., to Sitka, Alaska, when the helicopter snagged the Coast Guard’s cables that powered bar warning lights at the mouth of the Quillayute River.
Coast Guard Quillayute River Station Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott Lowry said the agency has chosen to replace the cables with a large generator that will be installed on James Island.
The generator, which will contain 200 gallons of diesel fuel, will be in place by the end of the month, he said.
Two smaller generators were put in place on the island as a temporary fix about two weeks after the crash, Lowry said.
“There will be no cables put back up,” he said.
The July crash was the second time the cables, which spanned the river’s mouth, had downed an aircraft.
Five people were killed on June 27, 1961, when their airplane collided with the cables.
Those dead included Robert Adams and Don Cornwell of El Paso, Texas; E.G. Hines, vice president of Bozell and Jacobs advertising agency; and two newspapermen, Ned Trimble of the Kansas City Star and Ed Keterba of Scripps-Howard newspapers, according to the Port Angeles Evening News, predecessor of the Peninsula Daily News.
Bozell and Jacobs, an advertising company that represented El Paso Natural Gas Co., had organized the flight as a scenic tour for the newspapermen, according to the Evening News.
The plane was en route to Portland, Ore., from the San Juan Islands.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Lisa Novak said she did not know if any safety features were added to the cables after the 1961 crash.
Orange aviation balls were on the cables at the time of the July crash.
Novak said she couldn’t provide any information on the investigation into the July crash because it is has not been concluded.
“It’s an ongoing investigation and we do not comment on an ongoing investigation,” she said.
_________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.