
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, December 19, 1994                   TAG: 9412190103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

1 PILOT DEAD IN N. KOREA; 1 STILL ALIVE

The pilot of a U.S. helicopter that strayed into North Korean airspace was killed when the aircraft went down Saturday, but a second pilot was still alive, the White House said Sunday.

``This tragic loss of life was unnecessary,'' President Clinton said in a statement issued by the White House reporting the death of Chief Warrant Officer David Hilemon of Clarksville, Tenn. Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall of Brooksville, Fla., ``is alive and reportedly uninjured,'' the statement said.

``Our primary concern now is the welfare of Chief Warrant Officer Hall and his return, along with the body of Chief Warrant Officer Hilemon,'' Clinton said. ``Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of both of these dedicated aviators.''

The death of Hilemon made the incident near the always-tense North-South Korean border the most serious since July 1977, when North Korea shot down a U.S. CH-47 helicopter, killing three crew members and injuring one.

It came as relations between the United States and North Korea were thawing, after an agreement to freeze and eventually dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program in exchange for oil and billions of dollars worth of new nuclear power technology.

The OH-58 helicopter, which U.S. officials said was on a training mission, went down three to four miles north of the demilitarized zone in the eastern sector of the Korean border Saturday morning.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry said the Defense Department has launched ``a full investigation of the circumstances that led to this tragic loss on a routine training flight.''

Senior U.S. officials said they had no independent information as to whether the helicopter, which the administration acknowledged had strayed across the border, had been shot down by North Korea or had been forced to land in an emergency.

The ``working assumption'' within the administration is that the aircraft had been shot down, as North Korea claimed, one official said.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB