Operation Babylift Tragedy
Early in April 1975, with much of South Vietnam overrun by North Vietnamese forces, the administration of United States instituted the evacuation of American citizens. To avoid alarming the host country, U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, Graham Martin, authorized Americans to be flown out under several pretexts, one of which was Operation Babylift, in which American caregivers were paired with South Vietnamese orphans. On the afternoon of Friday, April 4th 1975, C-5 68-0218, making the first flight of Operation Babylift, departed Tan Son Nhut Air Base. In the Philippines, this first group of orphans were to transfer to charter flights and be welcomed by President Ford upon arriving in the United States at San Diego, California. At 4:15 p.m. the C-5A was over the South China Sea about 13 nautical miles off Vung Tau South Vietnam, flying a heading of 136 degrees and climbing to an altitude of 23,000 feet. At that moment the locks on the rear loading ramp failed, causing the cargo door to open explosively. This caused an explosive decompression, temporarily filling the cabin with a whirlwind of fog and debris. The blowout severed control cables to the tail, causing two of four hydraulic systems to fail, including those for the rudder and elevator leaving the flight control with the use of only one aileron, spoiler and power.
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The pilot, Captain Dennis "Bud" Traynor, and copilot, Captain Tilford Harp, attempted to regain control of the airplane, and to perform a 180 degree turn in order to return to Tan Son Nhut. The aircraft began to exhibit phugoid oscillations (The phugoid is a long period motion when an airplane trades a bit of speed for altitude, and then trades some altitude for speed. Gaining speed increases lift which cause the plane to gently climb, while climbing reduces the speed. The cycle can range between 30 seconds to several minutes, making it not very noticeable, however, the instruments will sense the change in altitude and speed), but the crew countered them and maintained a controlled descent of about 250 to 260 knots. They were able to bring the plane to 4,000 feet and begin the approach to Tan Son Nhut's runway 25L. While turning on final approach, the plane's descent rate suddenly began to increase rapidly. The crew increased power to the engines in an attempt to arrest the descent, but despite their efforts, the plane touched down at 4:45 p.m. in a rice paddy, and skidded for a quarter of a mile, became airborne again for another half-mile crossing the Saigon River, then hit a dike and broke up into four pieces. The fuel caught fire and some of the wreckage was set ablaze.
Survivors struggled to extricate themselves from the wreckage. The crash site was in a muddy rice paddy near the Saigon River, one mile from the nearest road. Fire engines could not reach the site, and helicopters had to set down some distance from the wreckage. About 100 South Vietnamese soldiers deployed around the site, which was near the site of an engagement with the Viet Cong the previous night. Out of 313 people on board, the death toll included 78 children, 35 Defense Attaché Office employees and 11 U.S. Air Force personnel; there were 175 survivors. All of the surviving orphans were eventually flown to the United States. The dead orphans were cremated and are reported to be interred at a Catholic cemetery in Pattaya, Thailand.
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The U.S. Air Force Accident Investigation Board attributed the survival of any on board to Captain Traynor's unorthodox use of power and his decision to crash-land while the aircraft allowed some control. Captains Traynor and Harp were awarded the Air Force Cross for extraordinary valor. Thirty-seven medals were awarded to crew members or their next of kin. In 1975, flight nurse Regina Aune received the Cheney Award, is an aviation award presented in memory of 1st Lt. William Cheney, who was killed in an air collision over Italy in 1918.
When the rear doors were eventually recovered from the sea, investigation determined that some of the locks had not engaged properly. Maintenance records showed that locks had been cannibalized for spares, then subsequently improperly refitted so that not all the door locks were engaging correctly. Furthermore, the flight crew confirmed that they had encountered difficulty closing the doors before take-off. As the air pressure differential increased with altitude, the few locks that were working correctly were unable to bear the load, and the door failed.
Most of those who perished were in the lowest of three levels in what was then the largest aircraft in the world. A survivor of the crash stated: "Some of us got out through a chute from the top of the plane, but the children (and escorts) at the bottom of the plane didn't have a chance."
Air Force Sgt. Jim Hadley, a medical technician from Sacramento, California, recalled later that oxygen masks dropped down automatically, but the children were sitting two to a seat and there weren't enough masks to go around. "We had to keep moving them from kid to kid."
At first it was thought the crash may have been attributed to sabotage but later ruled-out by the USAF. The crash investigation was headed by Major General Warner E. Newby. The flight-recorder was recovered by a Navy diver on April 7th, 1975 from the bottom of the South China Sea. A Pentagon spokesman said the plane had undergone minor repairs to its radio and windshield in the Philippines before flying to Saigon but added that had nothing to do with the crash.
At the time the USAF had taken delivery of 81 Galaxy's. Wing problems had plagued this immense cargo plane but were not considered a factor in this incident. In spite of its wing problems this was only the second crash of a C-5A after over 190,000 combined flying hours by the USAF but the first crash resulting in loss-of-life. Two other C-5A's were previously destroyed in a fire while on the ground. Representative Les Aspin and Senator William Proxmire immediately urged the Air Force to ground the remaining 77 C-5A's, pointing to the continuing problem of weak wings.
By the 8th of April, Operation Baby Lift had resumed with the arrival of 56 orphans to the U.S. At the time of the crash over 18,000 orphans were being processed for evacuation from South Vietnam for adoption in the U.S. and other countries. Over 25,000 orphans were in South Vietnam in April of 1975.
In my research, I have been fortunate to become friends with several and hope to have their stories appear in this blog in the future.
