- ACCIDENT DETAILS
Date: April 04, 1975
Time: 1630
Location: Saigon, South Vietnam
Operator: Military - U.S. Air Force
Flight #: ?
Route: Saigon - Clark - Los Angeles
AC Type: Lockheed C-5A Galaxy
Registration: 68-218
cn / ln: 0021
Aboard: 330   (passengers:314  crew:16)
Fatalities: 155   (passengers:150  crew:5)
Ground: 0
Summary: The aircraft reported it was returning to Tan Son Nhut Airbase 15 minutes after taking off. The aircraft was not able to make the airport and crashed landed into a rice paddy, 1.5 miles from the airport. The flight was evacuating 243 Vietnamese orphans. Pressure failure due to a faulty rear loading ramp caused decompression which led to severed rudder and elevator cables and loss of two hydraulic systems resulting in a loss of pitch control. Worst single non-combat U.S. military aviation disaster.
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