AW1 Cory James Helman
HCS-23  MH-60S
BUNO: Unknown
Born: 8/14/79 Died: 1/26/07
Hometown: New Richmond, WI
We lost Corey when his MH-60S helicopter, Bullet 10, suffered a mishap and crashed into the Pacific off of San Clemente Island. Cory leaves behind his wife Tonya. Also killed were AW2 Christopher M. Will, 29, of Warren, Mich; Lt. Adam A. Dyer, 28, of Lafayette, La.; and Lt. j.g. Laura J. Mankey of West Hills, Calif.
Shipmates Comments:
AW1(AW/NAC) Chad "Tommy" Morrison
I had the privilege to serve with Cory while attached to VX-1. He was my sponsor and golf buddy. Nobody could hit the golf ball like he could. In my ten years of naval service I can say some negative things about almost everyone I have ever served with. Cory was one guy that you would never find anything bad to say about. He was just that SPOT ON!!!! He and I will always have Halifax. See you on the 19th hole Cory.
Media Reports:
New Richmond News
Family to mark anniversary of Cory’s death
By Jeff Holmquist
January 25, 2008
At exactly 4:23 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, Jim and Sandy Helman will light the fuses on 27 rockets at their family’s land in rural Barron. As the skies explode with sound and sparkling fireworks displays, friends and family members who are assembled there will pause to remember Cory Helman. The 27-year-old Navy Petty Officer First Class died a year ago at that exact time in a helicopter training exercise above the Pacific waters off the coast of California. Three others died in the accident as well.
“We wanted to do something to show that Cory is not forgotten,” Jim Helman said. “He’s still part of our family. We want to do things to remember him.” Jim Helman said the family decided to light off the 27 rockets, one for each year of Cory’s life. Those participating in the Saturday ceremony will gather on the Helmans’ land, where Cory and his family often spent time camping, canoeing and fishing. The Yellow River runs through the property. Jim and Sandy have installed a 35-foot flag pole on the land. They fly the Naval and POW flags on the pole, along with the American flag. They will fly the flag, given to the family at Cory’s funeral last March 31, at half-mast for Saturday’s gathering. When they return to New Richmond later on Saturday, the Helmans plan to display the flag at half-mast in their yard.
Year of adjustments--Jim Helman admits the past 12 months have been a challenge, as the family continued to mourn the loss of Cory. “We made it through Christmas,” he explained. “That was probably the hardest time. We’ve always had family things at that time of the year and Cory was always there.” The Helman’s daughter Charity was also absent from the normal Christmas festivities, as she was married recently and spent time with her new in-laws. Jim and Sandy traveled to Spooner, Wis. to celebrate with cousins to keep their minds off their change in holiday routines. In the weeks since Christmas, the Helmans were notified that the Navy’s investigation into the Jan. 26, 2007 crash failed to uncover a mechanical or human-error cause. Jim Helman said it was important to know if there was a mechanical flaw in the M-60 Seahawk helicopters so other service men were not in danger of similar crashes. It was a relief to hear that the investigation was complete, even if nothing new was learned, Jim said. “You can be satisfied with those results,” he said. “I’m pretty much at peace with the world.”
There was one positive development following the crash. The Navy decided to start installing crash-resistant flight data recorders on aircraft to help aid in future investigations. The recorders have been standard equipment on civilian airplanes for decades, but have not been previously required on military planes or helicopters. The Helmans have remained in contact with Cory’s wife, Tonya, over the past few months. Cory and Tonya, a former NFL cheerleader, were married for four years but had no children. Tonya traveled to Iraq on a U.S.O. tour last year and has now settled in the San Diego area.
A year ago--Cory, a 1998 graduate of New Richmond High School, was crew chief on a Seahawk helicopter. Helman was assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23, which is based at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Calif. The helicopter crews are typically assigned to mine sweeping and search-and-rescue duties in war zones. Cory Helman was scheduled to deploy to the Persian Gulf but was awaiting paperwork to be completed when the crash occurred. Immediately following the crash, search and rescue crews worked to recover the bodies of the Naval officers and the helicopter wreckage. Because of cold water and the depth of the water at the crash site, it took weeks for the task to be completed. A memorial service for the four crash victims was held Feb. 2 in California aboard a Navy ship. The Helmans held another service March 31 when Cory’s body was returned home.
San Diego Union-Tribune
3 found in water down 4,000 feet
By Steve Liewer
February 18, 2007
Salvage crews recovered the remains Friday of three Navy crew members who had been missing and presumed dead since the crash of their helicopter off the Southern California coast last month, a Naval Air Forces spokesman said.
Using an unmanned, remote-controlled submarine called the Deep Drone 8000, salvors aboard the Navy tugboat Sioux found the wreckage of the MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter late Thursday evening, Cmdr. Jack Hanzlik said. It was relatively intact, in 4,000 feet of water about 16 miles northeast of San Clemente Island, he said.
The bodies of Lt. j.g. Laura Mankey, 26, Lt. Adam Dyer, 28, and Petty Officer 1st Class Cory Helman, 27, were carefully lifted to the surface. Then they were brought to San Diego Naval Medical Center for positive identification.
After sending a distress call, the Knighthawk – from North Island-based Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 – plunged into the ocean during a training mission at 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 26 within sight of the amphibious landing ship Bon Homme Richard.
A fourth crewman, Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher Will, 29, was pulled from the water just after the crash, but he died a short time later.
The salvage effort could continue for two to five days, said Capt. Rich Hooper, the Navy's supervisor of salvage and diving.

KFMB8
Memorial Service For Navy Crew Killed In Crash
February 3, 2007
USS Bonhomme Richard — Family and friends of four local sailors killed in a helicopter crash have paid their respects during an emotional memorial. The memorial was held Friday on board the USS Bonhomme Richard at NAS North Island. Lt. Adam Dyer, Petty Officer 1st Class Cory Helman, Lt. Laura Mankey and Petty Officer Christopher Will died last Friday after their chopper went down off the coast of Oceanside.

LaCrosse Tribune
Wisconsin sailor killed in California helicopter crash
January 29, 2007
By DINESH RAMDE | The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin man is among three Navy sailors killed after their helicopter crashed in the ocean about 50 miles off California’s southern coast.
Petty Officer 1st Class Cory J. Helman, 27, of New Richmond was on the helicopter that plunged some 300 feet into the water Friday, according to his father, Jim Helman.
One sailor was retrieved from the water but later died, the Navy said. Three other sailors including Helman could not be found. The Navy called off the search Saturday evening. “The cold water temperature and the time that elapsed since the crash occurred led Navy officials to conclude that aircrew survivability is extremely unlikely,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Meydenbauer.
Jim Helman, 55, said the news was painful but he understood the Navy’s decision. “You don’t like to hear it, of course. But with the temperature, the time, I guess I don’t have hopes he would be alive,” Helman told The Associated Press by telephone Saturday evening. “We’d just love to have the body. How can you have closure without the body?”
Helman said Navy officials told him Friday night that his son was on the helicopter. The Navy officially pronounced him dead Saturday night. Helman said Sunday his family planned to go to California for a Navy memorial service this week. They plan to wait until his son’s body is found before they have a family funeral, he said. He said having his family around helped him cope with the grief. “I think maybe later the shell shock will really come in, when we get the body,” he said.
Cory, a 1998 graduate of New Richmond High School, was married for four years to Tonya but the couple had no children, his father said. “I think he left a positive impression on everybody. He was a little of the shy type but he was always friendly,” Helman said. The Helman family had a long history of military service and Cory was proud to follow down that path, according to his father.
Cory’s unit recently shipped out to Iraq but Cory couldn’t join them because he lacked certification on a single training exercise. It was during that very exercise that the crash occurred, Helman said. “That’s the toughest part. He could have been safe over there. You never know,” said Helman.
Also killed were Lt. Adam A. Dyer, 28, of Lafayette, La.; and Lt. j.g. Laura J. Mankey of West Hills, Calif. Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher M. Will, 29, of Warren, Mich. was pulled from the water shortly after the crash but died while being treated on the Bonhomme Richard.
The four were members of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 assigned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Calif. The MH-60S Sierra helicopter, which went down Friday around 2:30 p.m. PST, was on a mission off the USS Bonhomme Richard.
The pilot radioed a mayday but gave no indications of mechanical malfunctions or fire, Meydenbauer said. The Navy knew the location of the sunken helicopter, which was at a depth of 3,600 feet, but hadn’t decided whether the wreckage would be brought up from the ocean floor, Meydenbauer said. “I’m hoping when they retrieve it they can find whatever went wrong so the men flying the next batch don’t have any problem,” Helman said.
The MH-60 Sierra is a twin-turbine craft based on the UH-60L Black Hawk and the Navy’s SH-60B Seahawk, according to the manufacturer, United Technologies Corp.’s Sikorsky Aircraft. It is designed to operate off aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and frigates, ranging up to 100 nautical miles from a ship. The Bonhomme Richard is an amphibious assault craft that took Marines to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami.

Navy News Service
Navy Releases Names
NORTH ISLAND, Calif. (NNS) -- The names of the four Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23 Sailors who died on Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash have been released.The dead are: Lt. Adam A. Dyer, 28, Lafayette, La.;Petty Officer 1st Class Cory J. Helman, 27, New Richmond, Wis.;Lt. j.g. Laura J. Mankey, West Hills, Calif.; and Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher M. Will, 29, Warren, Mich.Their Navy MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter crashed into the Pacific Ocean while conducting aroutine training mission off USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) near San Clemente Island.Will was recovered Friday and transported by helicopter to Bonhomme Richard where he waspronounced dead.The search and rescue (SAR) effort for the remaining three crewmembers continued, but by 3 p.m. on Jan. 27 the mission shifted to a recovery effort.The cold water temperature and the time that elapsed since the crash occurred led Navyofficials to conclude that aircrew survivability was extremely unlikely.The Navy is evaluating the feasibility of salvaging the aircraft. The Navy is currently conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the incident.

San Diego Union Tribune
Sea crash kills sailor; 3 missing
January 27, 2007
Pauline Repard
A Navy Seahawk helicopter crashed in the ocean 50 miles off Camp Pendleton yesterday, killing at least one of four sailors on board, Navy officials said. A search continued into the night for the other three.
Helicopter down
The MH-60S Seahawk, with two pilots and two crewmen, went down at 2:30 p.m. It was assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 at North Island Naval Station.
One sailor was pulled from the helicopter by the crew of another Seahawk and taken to the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, where he died, Navy Cmdr. Jack Hanzlik said. His name was being withheld until his family could be notified. Hanzlik said the names of the others were being withheld for the same reason.
The copter was on a pre-deployment training mission near San Clemente Island. The Navy destroyer Chung-Hoon and the guided-missile cruiser Chosin were part of the joint Navy-Marine Corps exercise.
“There was a communication, a mayday, off to the ship, to let them know they were experiencing trouble before they hit the water,” Hanzlik said.
Another helicopter taking part in the training was airborne at that time and was first on the scene. That copter's crew found the sailor who later died, Hanzlik said. He said no one aboard the ships or the other helicopters saw the crash.
Search-and-rescue crews from all three vessels reached the helicopter within minutes of the crash, Hanzlik said. The aircraft sank at some point. The Navy knows where the helicopter sank, but Hanzlik said he didn't know if crews will try to recover it. The Coast Guard also sent a helicopter, but finished its role in the search by 6 p.m., a Coast Guard official said.
Hanzlik said the crews of the helicopters and inflatable boats stopped searching after dark because it was too dangerous to continue, but two additional Navy ships, the destroyer Milius and amphibious vessel Rushmore, joined the search.
Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 was established last fall for search and rescue, anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare, and transportation of special-warfare teams and equipment, Hanzlik said. According to a Navy Web site, the Bonhomme Richard and other ships assigned to Expeditionary Strike Group 5 were conducting live-fire training offshore this week in preparation for deployment of Marines.

CNN
Navy searches for missing crew after deadly copter crash
POSTED: 5:04 a.m. EST, January 27, 2007
Story Highlights:
- Vessels scour waters about 50 miles off the California coast
- One crew member died after being pulled from water alive; three missing
- Seahawk crew on training mission put out a mayday call before the crash
SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- Navy vessels about 50 miles off the California coast searched Saturday for three crew members of a Navy helicopter that crashed during a training operation. The Friday crash killed one crew member and left the remaining three missing as darkness fell over the Pacific.
The sailor died after being pulled alive from the water, said Navy spokesman Cmdr. Jack Hanzlik. "It's a sad time whenever we lose shipmates like this, so our hearts and prayers go out to the families," Hanzlik said.
The helicopter, based at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, was on a training mission when it crashed at about 5:30 p.m. EST.
The MH-60S, commonly known as a Seahawk, was on a mission off the USS Bonhomme Richard, near San Clemente Island, directly west of the Camp Pendleton Marine base. Hanzlik said the helicopter crew put out a mayday call before the crash. Navy sailors and Marines who were training with them aboard ship arrived at the crash site in inflatable boats within minutes.
The sailor pulled alive from the water died aboard the Bonhomme Richard while receiving medical attention, the Navy said. His name was being withheld pending family notification. The names and rank of the others aboard also had not been released.
It was not clear whether mechanical malfunction or pilot error might have contributed to the crash, the Navy said. An investigation was under way. Hanzlik said he did not know what type of maneuver the helicopter was performing when it crashed.
The USS Bonhomme Richard is an amphibious assault craft that took Marines to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami. The ship was training with two other Navy ships, the destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and the cruiser USS Chosin. Both of those ships were also participating in the rescue mission, Hanzlik said. Two additional vessels, the destroyer USS Milius and the amphibious craft USS Rushmore, were deployed to assist with the search.
The MH-60 Sierra is a twin-turbine craft based on the UH-60L Black Hawk and the Navy's SH-60B Seahawk, according to the manufacturer, United Technologies Corp.'s Sikorsky Aircraft. It is designed to operate off aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and frigates, ranging up to 100 nautical miles from the ship.

Navy Times
Few answers in year-old fatal Seahawk crash
January 21, 2008
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
SAN DIEGO — With a full load of fuel and boxed lunches tucked aboard their MH-60S Seahawk helicopter, the four-member aircrew went airborne and settled in for their plane guard mission for search and rescue during an afternoon of flight operations. Their Jan. 26, 2007, mission started at 1:42 p.m., when they lifted from the deck of amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard during a pre-deployment at-sea training period with Expeditionary Strike Group 3. At 2:14 p.m., flying a route at 1,000 feet, lead pilot Lt. Andrew A. Dyer reported to the ship’s air boss that operations were “normal” as Marine Corps helicopters took to the air for a planned boarding mission. Just nine minutes later, the radio screeched with the helicopter’s Electronic Locator Transmitter alarm and, almost immediately, came the harrowing call: “Mayday, mayday, mayday.” The Seahawk, known as “Bullet 10” for this mission, was falling out of the sky, slamming tail-down into the Pacific, 16 miles off San Clemente Island. The four-member aircrew was killed.
The helicopter, assigned to Detachment 3 of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, dropped into the sea and quickly sank. The crew of “Bullet 11,” another MH-60S flying nearby, pulled an unresponsive Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 2nd Class Christopher M. Will, 29, from the ocean. But Dyer, 26, along with his co-pilot, Lt. j.g. Laura J. Mankey, 26, and AW1 Cory J. Helman, 27, remained in the helicopter, which settled 3,700 feet below the surface.
In a delicate operation, salvage crews, using deep-diving remotely operated vehicles, recovered their bodies three weeks later and, eventually, nearly 90 percent of the helicopter. Navy officials convened an aviation mishap board, and investigators began a probe under the guidelines of the Judge Advocate’s General Manual. But after more than nine months of investigation, aviation officials and mishap investigators are at a loss in determining what caused the MH-60S to drop 1,000 feet into the ocean. “JAGMan investigators were unable to conclusively determine a specific cause for the mishap, unable to find fault, finding no culpability, no sign of neglect on the part of the aircrew nor the personnel responsible for maintaining the aircraft,” they wrote in their Aug. 16 investigation submitted to Expeditionary Strike Group 3. Navy Times received a redacted copy of the report Jan. 9 through a Freedom of Information Act request. “There is no evidence suggesting that the drive-train or flight control components failed in flight,” the investigators wrote. “The crew’s experience and skill were adequate to combat in-flight emergencies related to a flight control failure.” The lack of a clear cause of the crash is unusual because investigators didn’t even have any leading suspects. Investigators found no hydraulic or drive-train failure, no faulty engine, no flight control problems and no improper maintenance. The crew was rested, up-to-date in their flight qualifications and fully trained to handle in-flight emergencies, and there was no negligence or misconduct by the crew, they noted. “Although the crew was conducting in-flight training during or shortly before the mishap, the activation of the ELT before the ‘mayday’ call leads the investigators to believe that an event occurred, which was sufficient enough to activate an ELT,” the report says.
According to the report, the lead investigator believed the pilot may have been preparing to deal with “a possible loss of tail rotor drive or procedures for an emergency landing [ditching] of the aircraft.” But two other officers subsequently reviewing the investigation report weren’t convinced that the investigation concluded that the aircrew was reacting to a possible loss of the tail rotor drive.
SEAHAWKS LACK DATA RECORDER
Investigators believe that they might have gotten some clues into the MH-60S crash if the aircraft was equipped with an onboard flight data recorder. The crash has prompted Navy officials to buy and install the device in its H-60 fleet. The helicopter’s advanced flight control computer, which includes a “nonvolatile memory,” or NVM, device, was recovered in the wreckage, but that device “was not programmed to record flight data,” investigators stated in the report. “The lack of a flight data recorder on board the aircraft greatly hindered the search for a cause of the accident,” they wrote. “Had the aircraft contained a flight data recorder or if the NVM contained the lines of code necessary for recording flight information, the aircraft’s maneuvers and the performance of the installed components would have provided a clear indication of what degradations may have occurred and what actions were taken during the last few minutes of flight,” they added. “A record would exist that could clearly identify any failed component in this case, aiding with determining what caused the ELT to sound and the subsequent loss of control severe enough for the pilot to call a Mayday.”
The lead investigator recommended that the Navy install flight data recorders on all its helicopters “to record the operating parameters, degradations and flight profiles of the aircraft and it’s [sic] flight related systems.” A Navy commander who reviewed the investigation agreed with the JAGMan investigator and recommended the Navy buy crash-worthy encrypted flight data recorders for the H-60 helicopter. “In this particular mishap, a recorder might have contained the missing evidence that could have provided more clarity into the cause(s) of this tragic mishap,” the officer, whose name was redacted in the released report, wrote, noting the “undetermined” root cause of the crash. Vice Adm. Thomas Kilcline, who commands Naval Air Forces in Coronado, Calif., agreed and approved the recommendation. Officials were making no comment about the investigation or recommendations, said Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Meydenbauer, Naval Air Forces spokeswoman. A flight data recorder is part of an ongoing Navy initiative called Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance.