Date:	Tuesday 26 May 1981
Time:
Type:	Bell AH-1 Cobra
Owner/operator:	United States Army
Registration:
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Chaptico, MD -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	NAS Patuxent River, MD (NHK/KNHK)
Destination airport:	NAS Patuxent River, MD (NHK/KNHK)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Helicopter crashed due to mast bumping during a familiarization flight from Patuxent Naval Air Test Station.

Killed were Army Maj. Douglas L. Dowd and Navy Lt. Robert S. Ellis. Their widows won a legal case against Bell Helicopter Textron; however, in 1986 that decision was overturned by a U.S. federal appeals court which ruled that military contractors were immune from liability.

(Note: in some legal documents and newspaper articles related to the legal case, the accident date is given as 21 May 1981. Newspaper articles from the time of the accident, as well as military records, provide verification of the correct accident date of 26 May 1981.)

The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Md.), 27 May 1981, p. 23
The Baltimore Sun, 27 May 1981, p. 42
Rotor & Wing International, May 1985, p. 9
Washington Post, 29 May 1986
Defense Casualty Analysis System Public Use File, 1950-2005, U.S. National Archives

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
22-Sep-2022 18:55	ASASA	Added
20-Sep-2023 08:19	Ron Averes	Updated