What happened
During an emergency troop evacuation mission at Khâm Đức Airfield, an aircraft operated by the 21st squadron was conducting its approach when it sustained damage from small arms artillery fire. The impact resulted in a failure of the hydraulic systems.
Upon landing, the crew found the aircraft to be uncontrollable. Through deliberate maneuvering, the pilot managed to guide the plane off the runway, preventing a more catastrophic collision, though the aircraft did eventually strike a helicopter that was parked nearby. While there were zero fatalities among the five crew members, the aircraft was later destroyed by USAF fighter jets as part of an effort to eliminate all usable assets at the camp to prevent them from falling into enemy hands.
Findings
Investigations concluded that the primary factor in the loss of control was the hydraulic system failure caused by incoming artillery rounds during the final approach phase.