The Last Flight from Da Nang, 1975

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 09/14/2015 at 13:45 • Filed to: planelopnik

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In the closing stages of the Vietnam War, World Airways president Ed Daly accompanied one of his company’s 727s on a rescue mission to Da Nang, where he hoped to pick up a planeload of women and children and evacuate them to Saigon before Da Nang fell to the North Vietnamese. As soon as the plane landed, it was stormed by hordes of deserters from the Army of Vietnam. The men fought their way onto the plane and into the cargo holds and wheel wells, leaving their wives, children and aged parents behind. When the airliner reached Saigon, there were 268 people in the cabin and more than 60 in the cargo holds. There were only 5 women and 2 or 3 small children. A CBS camera crew was there to film the flight, and they witnessed the chaos at the airport.

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 09/14/2015 at 13:49

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Reminds me of “The Last Herk out of Vietnam” .

Can you imagine 452 people in a C-130?

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 09/14/2015 at 13:51

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I hadn’t heard that story. Yet more testimony to the awesomeness of that a/c.

davedave1111 > ttyymmnn 09/14/2015 at 14:19

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Interesting. This was on iPlayer recently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06…

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Documentary which combines astonishing footage from Saigon in April 1975 with contemporary reflections from those who were there. During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront the same moral quandary - whether to obey White House orders to evacuate US citizens only - or to risk punishment and save the lives of as many South Vietnamese citizens as they can.

The events recounted in the film mainly centre on the US evacuation of Saigon, codenamed Operation Frequent Wind.

ttyymmnn > davedave1111 09/14/2015 at 14:21

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I'll check that out. Thanks.

VolksytheBug > ttyymmnn 09/14/2015 at 19:02

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Great story!

Also, ttyymmnn, any tips on getting myself ungreyed? I’ve got a cool post to share on the Oppositelock version of Planelopnik, but I’m restricted to the inferior Kinja blog. Perhaps you could share it to here?

Keep up the “Aviation Milestones” series by the way. I look forward to those posts each week, and even as a hardcore avgeek, learn something new every time.

Thanks!

-Noah

ttyymmnn > VolksytheBug 09/14/2015 at 20:41

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The Planelopnik blog is owned by Chris Clarke, who started it on his own before taking over Flight Club for a short time. I don’t have posting privileges there myself, but I can comment out of the gray. There is a Planelopnik tag that collects most of the av posts that get made to Oppo and other places. Ballaban usually puts the Planelopnik tag oh his av posts. Any post tagged with “Planelopnik” will end up there. So I would suggest that you post anything av-related here to Oppo and tag it with Planelopnik. The hard core av geeks always hit that tag from time to time to see what they’ve missed.

Thanks for your kind words about my work. What started out as a one-off post has morphed into a year-long project, and I’m always pleased when I read that somebody has learned something. It takes a fair amount of time, but I’ve always been part plane nut and part history nut, so it’s become a labor of love. Thanks for reading!