![]() Boeing 747-100, similar to the one hijacked | |
Hijacking | |
---|---|
Date | July 2, 1972 |
Summary | Hijacking |
Site | Tan Son Nhut Air Base |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 747-121 |
Operator | Pan American World Airways |
Flight origin | San Francisco International Airport |
1st stopover | Honolulu (Daniel K. Inouye) International Airport |
2nd stopover | Guam (Antonio Won Pat) International Airport |
Last stopover | Manila (Ninoy Aquino) International Airport |
Destination | Tan Son Nhut Air Base |
Passengers | 136 |
Crew | 17 |
Fatalities | 1 (hijacker) |
Survivors | 152 |
History of Ho Chi Minh City |
---|
![]() |
Metro • Names (district names) • Organised crime |
![]() |
Pan Am Flight 841 was a commercial passenger flight of a Boeing 747 from San Francisco, California to Saigon, South Vietnam which was hijacked over the South China Sea on July 2, 1972, ostensibly as an act of protest concerning United States involvement in the Vietnam War as well as the expulsion from the U.S. of the South Vietnamese hijacker, a recent graduate of a U.S. university. The hijacking ended when the captain and passengers overcame and killed the lone hijacker after the plane landed at Tan Son Nhut Airport in Saigon.
PA841 was a scheduled Pan Am commercial passenger flight, on a Boeing 747, which departed from San Francisco on July 2, 1972 destined for Saigon with stops at Honolulu, Guam and Manila. [1] [2] [3]
About 45 minutes after the plane departed Manila with 153 passengers and crew aboard for the final leg of its trip to Saigon, a 24-year-old South Vietnamese native, Nguyễn Thái Bình , passed a note to a flight attendant that stated in English, "You are going to fly me to Hanoi and this airplane will be destroyed when we get there." Bình, who claimed to be North Vietnamese, also took another flight attendant hostage. The note was conveyed to the flight's 53-year-old captain, Eugene Vaughn. Bình had graduated from the University of Washington on 10 June 1972 with a bachelor's degree in fisheries management after attending from 1968 to 1971 on a USAID scholarship. An activist opposed to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, Bình had been arrested for occupying the South Vietnamese consulate in New York; his visa was revoked on 7 June and he was expelled from the U.S.. Bình, who boarded the flight in Honolulu, ostensibly decided to hijack his flight home as an "act of revenge". [1]
When Vaughn refused to reroute the flight from Saigon to Hanoi, Bình wrote a second note spattered with his own blood. The second note read "This indicates how serious I am about being taken to Hanoi." Vaughn confronted Bình in the cabin and observed a foil-wrapped package that Bình said contained a bomb. Bình was also armed with a long knife. Vaughn also spoke with another passenger on the flight, W.H. Mills, whom he knew to be a retired San Francisco police officer, advising him that he might require his assistance to overcome the hijacker and returning the officer's .357 magnum handgun that had been stored in the cockpit for safekeeping during the flight. [2] [4]
Vaughn landed at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport under the pretext of needing to refuel the aircraft. After landing, Vaughn walked back to the cabin to speak with the hijacker again. Bình, highly agitated, threatened to detonate his bomb unless the aircraft immediately departed for Hanoi. Claiming to have trouble understanding Bình's speech, Vaughn encouraged Bình to lean closer. When he did so, Vaughn restrained Bình in a choke hold and he and two passengers knocked the package from Bình's hand and pinned him to the floor. Vaughn signalled Mills, who shot Bình five times, killing him. Vaughn then carried Bình's body to the rear exit of the aircraft and threw it onto the tarmac. The 135 surviving passengers and 17 crew members evacuated the aircraft. The only reported injury other than the death of the hijacker was that of a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, a passenger on the flight, who broke his leg exiting via the inflated evacuation chute. [2] The plane took off hours later for Hong Kong to have its evacuation gear repaired.
Vaughn reported that he had guessed (correctly) that Bình was bluffing. The foil-wrapped package actually contained lemons. [5]
Many U.S. anti-war protesters viewed Bình as a martyr for their cause, [6] and shortly after the incident a break-in occurred at Vaughn's home in Scottsdale, Arizona, with "animal intestines, paint and broken bottles" thrown into his swimming pool. [7] The protesters also left a note, apparently written in animal blood: "Pig Eugene Vaughn guilty of murder. To be punished later. Long live Nguyễn Thái Bình. Victory to the Vietnamese. Death to the American aggressor." [8] However, Vaughn was also lauded as a hero who acted to save his passengers, craft and crew, and his actions were described as an expression of frustration with the many hijackings that occurred during the period. Vaughn was quoted as saying, at an event to honor him at the Phoenix airport on his return to the United States, "A lot of time and effort has been spent on trying to prevent hijackings, but the only thing that will be effective is a mandatory death penalty, without any loopholes." [7] [1] [3] Vaughn retired from Pan Am in 1979 after 38 years with the airline, and died of cancer in 1984; both of his sons became airline pilots. [9]
Bình's friends in the US established a collection in 1974 at the University of Washington library, containing papers about Bình's life and protest activities. [10] Among those involved in establishing the collection were noted clergyman and peace activist William Sloane Coffin and academic and author Bruce E. Johansen. [10] A street is named for Bình in present-day Ho Chi Minh City, honoring him as a hero of the 1970s anti-colonial movement in Vietnam. [11]
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1972.
The Battle of Đồng Xoài was a major battle fought during the Vietnam War as part of the Viet Cong (VC) Summer Offensive of 1965. It took place in Phước Long Province, South Vietnam, between June 9 and 13, 1965.
The fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong on 30 April 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the collapse of the South Vietnamese state, leading to a transition period and the formal reunification of Vietnam into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under communist rule on 2 July 1976.
Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport is an international airport serving Ho Chi Minh City, the most populous city in Vietnam. The airport is located in the Tân Bình district within the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area.
Lê Văn Tống, known as Lý Tống, was a Vietnamese American aviator and anti-communist activist.
Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the Fall of Saigon. It was carried out on 29–30 April 1975, during the last days of the Vietnam War. More than 7,000 people were evacuated by helicopter from various points in Saigon. The airlift resulted in a number of enduring images.
Operation Babylift was the name given to the mass evacuation of children from South Vietnam to the United States and other western countries at the end of the Vietnam War, on April 3–26, 1975. By the final American flight out of South Vietnam, over 3,300 infants and children had been airlifted, although the actual number has been variously reported. Along with Operation New Life, over 110,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of children were airlifted from Vietnam and adopted by families around the world.
Air Vietnam Flight 706 was a Boeing 727 that crashed on September 15, 1974 after three hijackers detonated hand grenades as it was approaching Phan Rang Air Base in South Vietnam for an emergency landing. All 67 passengers and 8 crew members aboard the aircraft were killed in the crash.
Active from 1951 to 1975, Air Viet Nam was South Vietnam's first commercial air carrier, headquartered in District 1, Saigon. Established under a decree by Chief of State Bảo Đại, the airline flew over two million passengers, throughout the Vietnam War, and until its collapse due to the Fall of Saigon.
Tan Son Nhut Air Base (1955–1975) was a Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) facility. It was located near the city of Saigon in southern Vietnam. The United States used it as a major base during the Vietnam War (1959–1975), stationing Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine units there. Following the Fall of Saigon, it was taken over as a Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) facility and remains in use today.
U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield is a military airfield of the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi) southeast of Bangkok in the Ban Chang District of Rayong Province near Sattahip on the Gulf of Thailand. It is serves as the home of the RTN First Air Wing.
The South Vietnam Air Force, officially the Republic of Vietnam Air Force, was the aerial branch of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, the official military of the Republic of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975.
Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company, operating as VietJet Air or Vietjet, is a Vietnamese low-cost airline based in Hanoi. It was the first privately owned airline to be established in Vietnam, being granted its initial approval to operate by the Vietnamese Minister of Finance in November 2007. As of its launch in December 2011, it became the second private airline to offer domestic service in Vietnam, as well as the fifth airline overall to offer civil domestic flights. VietJet Air is owned by Sovico Holdings, HDBank, other organisational investors, and individual stakeholders.
On 4 April 1975, a Lockheed C-5A Galaxy participating in the first mission of Operation Babylift crashed on approach during an emergency landing at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam. The cause was ascribed to loss of flight control due to explosive decompression and structural failure. The accident marked the second operational loss and first fatal crash for the C-5 Galaxy fleet, and is the third deadliest accident involving a U.S. military aircraft after the 1968 Kham Duc C-130 shootdown and Arrow Air Flight 1285.
1972 in the Vietnam War saw foreign involvement in South Vietnam slowly declining. Three allies, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand, which had each contributed military contingents, left South Vietnam this year. The United States continued to participate in combat, primarily with air power to assist the South Vietnamese, while negotiators in Paris tried to hammer out a peace agreement and withdrawal strategy for the United States.
1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) launched the Spring Offensive in March; the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was quickly defeated. The North Vietnamese captured Saigon on April 30, accepting the surrender of South Vietnam. In the final days of the war, the United States, which had supported South Vietnam for many years, carried out an emergency evacuation of its civilian and military personnel and more than 130,000 Vietnamese.
The Bombing of Tan Son Nhut Air Base occurred on April 28, 1975, just two days before the Fall of Saigon. The bombing operation was carried out by the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) Quyet Thang Squadron, using captured Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) A-37 Dragonfly aircraft flown by VPAF pilots and RVNAF defectors led by Nguyen Thanh Trung who had bombed the Presidential Palace in Saigon on 8 April 1975.
COSARA was a Vietnamese aviation and transport company founded by Maurice Loubière. The company's office was located at 5–13, Turc Street, Saigon - now Ho Huan Nghiep Street, Ho Chi Minh City.
Phạm Quang Khiêm was the first lieutenant, and co-pilot in the South Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) during the Vietnam War. Khiêm was a cargo pilot with the 53rd Tactical Wing of the 5th Air Division stationed at Tan Son Nhut. He flew several missions into communist-occupied Pleiku to rescue VNAF personnel. On 3 April 1975, Khiêm organized a plan to steal a C-130A and gathered 53 people to rescue them from the North Vietnamese communists. Later, Khiêm became pilot for Piedmont Airlines until 2006.