c/n 79

142427

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• 142427 US Navy. Delivered 21st March 1956. VX-6 initially at Patuxent River NAS, MD.

VX-6 Little America Station, some 400 miles to the east of the main American base at McMurdo Sound on the Ross Ice Shelf.

Incident: Cape Chocolate on the Ross Sea 22nd October 1958. The Otter was supporting a science party taking observation readings on the Ross Ice Shelf. During a ground taxi to take the science party to another observation spot the fuselage buckled and cracked. It was able to be flown back to McMurdo. Such was the extent of the damage that the Otter was a write-off and was struck from the Naval inventory on 18th  November at McMurdo.

Total time: 409 hours in Naval service.

• Written off •

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Otter 79 was delivered to the US Navy on 21st March 1956 with BuAer serial 142427. Otters 77 and 78 were delivered to the Navy at the same time (all three were to have been delivered the previous July but were delayed by a strike at DHC) and all three were flown to the Navy's VX-6 Squadron base at Patuxent River NAS, Maryland. From there they were transported to Antarctica and entered service with VX-6. On 22nd October 1958 the Otter had transported a party of scientists some thirty miles from McMurdo to Cape Chocolate on the Ross Sea. It suffered structural failure while taxying -- the fuselage buckled and cracked. It was forced to taxy back to base but such was the extent of the damage that the Otter was a write-off. It was stricken from the Naval inventory on 18th November 1958, having flown 409 hours in Naval service, and was scrapped.

Full history courtesy of Karl E. Hayes © from DHC-3 Otter: A History (2005).

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