Operation Babylift Airliner Crash in the South China Sea (68-0218)

Background and Flight Details The aircraft was operating a humanitarian mission as part of Operation Babylift, a program to transport Vietnamese orphans to the United States before the fall of the Republic of Vietnam. At 1603 local time, the airplane departed Saigon-Tan Son Nhat Airport heading east. Twelve minutes into the flight, while cruising at 23,000 feet over the South China Sea, a technical issue occurred with the rear access ramp doors, leading to rapid cabin decompression. A crew member was ejected from the aircraft, and the ramp door subsequently detached and fell into the sea. The captain declared an emergency and was cleared to return to Saigon Airport. At that point, two of the four hydraulic systems were inoperative, and control and trim cables to the rudder and elevators were severed, leaving only one aileron and the wing spoilers functional. The crew managed to descend toward runway 25L, but the rate of descent increased to 4,000 feet per minute. The aircraft first struck the ground at 250 knots approximately 4 km short of runway 25L, bounced for three seconds, and then crashed 500 meters further into a rice paddy field. The aircraft disintegrated on impact, scattering debris over a wide area. On board were 149 orphans, 10 medical team members, 155 military personnel, and 16 crew members. It was reported that 141 orphans, six soldiers, five crew members, and three medical team members were killed. The US Navy amphibious cargo ship USS Durham, frigate USS Reasoner, and command ship USS Blue Ridge were tasked with searching for the flight data recorder in the South China Sea. The recorder was recovered, and Navy ships and helicopters also located debris from the doors and the body of a crew member in the sea.