The NATOPS guru's out there should find one glaring violation of SOP I committed. I'll point it out after the story.

There I Was...flying an afternoon PG flight when we got a Tail Gearbox chip light. For those familiar with the H-3, chip lights are common, except the tail. An emergency was declared and the pilots set up for a no-hover landing to spot 3 (the forward most landing spot on the angle deck while Dave and I strapped in (I had been in the gunner's belt in the after station).

As we crossed the fantail, the gearbox started howling (imagine a bandsaw with bad bearings). Every time the pilot made power corrections, the howl got worse. They locked the controls and hit the deck rolling just about spot 4. This aircraft had a history of weak brakes, so, even standing on them would not stop us. The pilots decided to try to pop up and slide back to land instead of risking rolling off the angle deck and flipping over.

As soon as we cleared the deck, the gearbox failed completely.

Watching the PLAT tape (2.9 MB .wmv file courtesy Gary Schreffler), you see the tail-rotor spin to a stop and reverse as we started spinning. We barely missed the deck edge and dropped into the water. Because of the spinning, I did not see that we had dropped below the deck and the first indication of a water landing was a gush of water coming up through the sonar funnel.

I was strapped into the troop seat so I punched out the port window just forward of the seat. Almost immediately, we started rolling right putting my primary escape route under the aircraft. As soon as all motion stopped (except the aircraft sinking), I unstrapped and released the emergency window in the cargo door. The aircraft continued to roll placing my secondary exit temporarily out of reach.

I walked down the deck and port side of the aircraft until the aircraft was inverted allowing me to reach the window. The other three members of the crew had already egressed and since I had not been seen or heard from, made a radio call of three survivors. I pushed the window clear and started to swim out. At that instant I realized, I had forgotten to unstrap from my gunners belt when I strapped into the troop seat.

That's the big mistake I made!

Fortunately, it was daytime and a "calm" crash so there was no panic. I released the belt and swam clear of the aircraft, joining the remaining crewmembers for an uneventful rescue.

Lessons Learned:
Don't be strapped into two different restraints at the same time!
The egress training I had received prior to this (I had never ridden the dunker before this) prepared me quite well for this situation.
Take all your emergency training seriously. It's too easy to joke or cheat at your blindfolded egress training.

Fly safe and come back dry
Rob Bixby
AW1(AW) Retired