All language subtitles for Mayday.S07E04.Operation.Babylift.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

At the chaotic end
of a bitter war...

...the world's largest airplane
is loaded with orphans,

and headed for safety.

Advancing throttles now.

Time. Go.

We needed to get
out of missile range.

But only minutes
into their escape...

There was this loud explosion.
One quick bang.

What was that?

The plane
is out of control...

I kept going faster,
and faster, and faster.

...and headed
for the ground.

Prepare for
emergency landing!

Mom! Get down.

And then... it was quiet.

Mayday! Mayday!

South Vietnam,
April 1975.

After more than ten years
of fighting,

the United States
is on the verge of defeat.

The end of the war
is fast approaching.

The enemy is closing in
on the capital.

On April the 4th,

at a military base
in the South Vietnamese
capital of Saigon,

a strange cargo is being loaded
onto an enormous C5-A Galaxy.

This is one of the largest
planes in the world.

The C5-A
is primarily a cargo plane.

Its hold is wide enough
to carry tanks

and tall enough
to move buses.

Above the cargo area,
there's a small number
of seats.

Both the passenger area
and the cargo bay

are being pressed
into service today.

Dozens of Vietnamese orphans

have been loaded onto the plane
to be flown to safety.

There are thousands of orphans
to be flown out

before the North Vietnamese
take Saigon.

Barb Adams works
for the American Embassy.

She and her daughter, Linda,
are also fleeing.

On April 4th,
my mom came home
and told me

that I had one hour
to pack one suitcase,

and that we were going to be
escorting the orphans

on an orphan airlift
back to the United States.

When my mother and I
went upstairs
to the troop compartment,

there's traditional
airline seats

and all of the seats
were filled with babies.

Sergeant Ray Snedegar
is in charge of loading
the plane's massive cargo bay.

Make sure it's secure.
We got people down here.

It was hard
to control the situation.

So many people were there.
So much news media,

so many people
from the orphanages,
so many military people...

that it was
actually pure chaos.

Just the day before,
American President Gerald Ford

announced the start of this
desperate mission of mercy,

a remarkable effort
called Operation Babylift.

I have directed that

C5-A aircraft,

and other aircraft

especially equipped
to care for these orphans

during the flight,
be sent to Saigon.

I expect these flights to begin
within the next 36 to 48 hours.

Arnold Isaacs
was covering the end of the war
for the Baltimore Sun.

We had transport aircraft
flying into Saigon every day,

unloading military supplies

and going back empty.

And so, it was decided
that they could carry out

the orphans
on those returning flights.

There were a lot of cameras
and reporters out there

covering the loading
and the departure of the plane.

Captain Bud Traynor
is in charge

of Operation Babylift's
first flight.

I got a call
from the command post

back in the States,

and they said to me,

"How many people could you
take out of Saigon

"if you were asked?"

Because of the last minute nature
of the flight,

they're running
behind schedule.

The plane is already
five hours late,

and Captain Traynor
wants to be in the air.

He orders the cargo bay doors
to be closed.

Tell everyone
to get the doors closed.

Loadmaster, close
the cargo bay doors.

The youngest
of the 145 children

have been crammed
into the upper passenger section
of the jet.

My mother and I
were both assigned

three rows of seats
with maybe four to a row.

So it would be 12-15 babies
that we would be taking care of
on the flight.

Feeding them, changing them,
whatever they needed
to have done.

Ina?

Have a good flight, Ina.

Have a good flight.

There are
102 older children
in the cargo area below.

A number of adults
from the American Embassy

are also down here,
keeping an eye on the orphans.

Getting out of Vietnam starts
by leaving the safety
of the U.S. base.

Advancing throttles now.

Fifteen.

Twenty.

Time, go.

Gear up.

I remember that
we had to take off
at a pretty steep angle.

And we didn't have seats,

so we were to
kneel on the floor

between the seats
during takeoff.

The cargo plane
is heading for

Clark Air Force Base
in the Philippines.

It's a two-and-a-half
hour flight.

From there,
the orphans will be sent

to adoption agencies
in North America and Australia.

We needed to take off
from Saigon and make a...

a very rapid ascent
to get out of missile range.

Cargo planes
are easy targets.

They're slow moving
and large.

The possibility of an attack
is very real.

Just five days before,

North Vietnamese troops captured
the South's second largest city,

Da Nang.

South Vietnamese forces
are retreating towards Saigon.

In the capital,
the situation is chaotic.

Thousands of South Vietnamese
civilians are desperate
to leave.

Every day,
another province was lost.

Especially after Da Nang fell,

the population of Saigon,
I think, began to...

fall into a...

sort of a paralyzed,
petrified terror.

Never, not for one moment
that I remember,

did you have a feeling of anyone
rallying to defend the country.

How's the air
in the troop compartment?

It's all right.

The babies
still squalling, or...

have they quieted down
with all the noise?

Most are asleep.

Just as well.

Then,
shortly after takeoff...

as the plane climbs
through 23,000 feet...

When the rapid
decompression occurred,

the plane filled
with this mist,

and so, until it dissipates,
it's... you cannot see.

And it was this loud explosion.
One quick bang.

What was that?

And she said,
"I'm not sure."

And you could feel the plane
heading downward.

Debris started flying around.

It's a classic
decompression.

Somewhere, there's
a massive hole
in the plane's fuselage.

The air inside the jet
is rushing out.

At 23,000 feet, there's
barely enough oxygen
to breathe.

So I looked over
at the co-pilot,

and he was putting on
his oxygen mask,

and I thought,
"I'd better do that, too."

The oxygen masks
dropped automatically.

But on such
an overcrowded flight, there
aren't enough to go around.

The ones that are available
weren't designed
to reach babies.

As I looked out the window,
I saw the ocean.

And I said to my mom, I said,
"We're crashing, aren't we?"

At the back
of the passenger compartment,

Lieutenant Marcia Wirtz
checks in with the crew.

From there, she can usually see
down to the cargo bay below her.

Pilot, this is Wirtz.

I'm at the top grate
of the troop compartment.

I can see the China Sea
out the rear of the plane.

What?

The cargo door is gone.

With more than
300 people on board,

Captain Bud Traynor's jet
has lost its breathable air.

Somehow, his massive aircraft
has been badly damaged.

And he's a long way
from a safe place to land.

The inaugural flight
of Operation Babylift

will not make it
out of Vietnam.

The next few minutes
will determine
if anyone even survives.

Oxygen levels
are dangerously low.

Unlike the passenger
compartment above,

there are only
a few portable masks
for passengers in the cargo bay.

My first priority
after a rapid decompression

is to get the aircraft back down
to a breathing altitude
for all the passengers,

which is 10,000 feet.

Taking it back
to the airport.

And so,
I turned 180 degrees,

and now I'm heading back
to Saigon.

But before he
gets back to Saigon...

Sergeant Snedegar!

...Traynor needs to know
how bad the situation is.

The airplane is going down
in a left bank.

At that particular point,
I had a sense
that we're going down.

I go to the cockpit...

- Sir.
- See what's going on.

And Captain Traynor tells me
to go to the cargo compartment

to see what's happening
down there.

When I was in my descent,
I went to my maximum speed,

which is what
you're supposed to do
to get to 10,000 feet.

I got to my maximum speed,

I pulled back on the yoke...

And nothing happened.

I kept going faster,

and faster, and faster.

Traynor's plane
is diving to the ground,

and he can't get it
to pull up.

At the back of the plane,
Ray Snedegar descends
into the center of the storm.

When I came down, I noticed
there was a lot of chaos
in the cargo compartment.

Obviously, people
were frightened,

So I'm actually crawling
and stepping over people,

that are combat-loaded
on the floor.

And I saw this huge, gaping hole
in the back of the airplane.

All day light back there.

And then,
Snedegar spots what could be
an even more serious problem.

Hydraulic fluid
is pumping out.

Control cables are dangling
in the breeze,
flopping back and forth.

And it just reminded me
of looking at some spaghetti.

That's the first thought
in my mind.

The flight engineer
also notices that the plane

is losing
its hydraulic fluid fast.

Pilot,
we've lost number one
hydraulic system.

We've just lost
number two hydraulics.

Hydraulic fluid helps
the crew move the massive
control surfaces on the plane,

the rudder and elevator
in the back and the ailerons
and flaps on the wings.

There are four separate
hydraulic systems on the plane.

Now, two of them
are completely empty.

And as Traynor dives
towards 10,000 feet,

his plane is going much faster
than it should,

and he can't pull up.

And I kept pulling back
on the yoke,

thinking that I could
slow it down.

Pulled back more
and more and more.

I'm not getting anything
out of the yoke.

How about you?

Nothing!

And we were
just totally puzzled.

What is going wrong?

Pulling on his yoke
should bring the plane's nose up
and slow it down.

If he can't pull
the plane up soon,

it'll plow
straight into the ground.

And I'm concerned at that point,
we are still falling.

We're not leveling out.

In the belly
of the plane, Ray Snedegar

reports what he sees
to the cockpit.

Pilot! Cargo bay!

Go ahead.

I told him that a part
of the ramp was missing.

The pressure door was gone.

And hydraulic lines
and control cables
have been cut.

The problem is now
much worse than we thought.

Declare an emergency.

Saigon, this is MAC 80218.

We're declaring emergency.

We require immediate return
to base.

Unlike commercial airlines,
there was nobody

that came on to the PA system
and announced
what was happening.

So, I just kind of focused
on the children.

After struggling
with his crippled jet,

Traynor's efforts
finally seem to pay off.

And now the airplane
levels itself off

and we're saying,
"Wow, thank goodness

"that we're finally making it
out of this."

As quickly
as it leveled off,
the plane begins to climb again.

The nose of the jet
begins pulling up into the sky.

And so I relax the yoke,
and what happens?

Nothing. I'm still going
straight up now.

Unless Traynor
can gain some speed,
his plane will soon stall

and tumble from the sky.

And it got higher and higher.

And pretty soon,
I'm going
almost straight up.

In desperation,
he dips one wing,
forcing the nose down.

I'm now
in a very, very steep dive.

And there's nothing
I can do, seemingly,
to bring the nose up.

And so, counterintuitive,
I added power.

And when I did that,
the airplane pulled itself
out of the dive,

and I started to go
back up again.

This time I stopped it
at 10,000 feet,

and rolled out, and I realized
that I had learned
how to control the airplane.

Traynor can't control
his plane's pitch

as he usually does,
by pushing and pulling
on his control column.

Instead, by gently increasing
and decreasing power
to his engines,

he seems to be able
to keep his plane leveled.

At that point,
I've realized that

my only pitch control
was the throttle.

The plane
has descended to 10,000 feet.

There's now
enough oxygen to breathe.

One, zero, zero.
It's safe
to remove our masks.

Gear down.
Before landing checklist.

I just headed
directly for Saigon

and began a descent

and began positioning myself
for a final, much like
you would in a glider.

Don't worry.
They're taking care of it
up in the cockpit.

We're gonna be out soon.

I'm trying to provide comfort
to these passengers.

At the same time, I know
we're in serious trouble,

because the airplane
is still going down.

Captain Traynor
has coaxed his injured jet
down to just over 4,000 feet.

Eleven kilometers
from the airport,

he turns his jet
to line up with the runway,

when his plane
surprises him again.

In the final turn
to the runway,

when I banked the airplane,

the nose dropped
and I couldn't
continue my turn.

I had to level the wings

so that I had enough lift
that the nose
didn't keep descending.

Captain Traynor
had to stop turning

before he could line up
with the runway.

He's now losing altitude fast,

and his prospects are becoming
increasingly grim.

While we were working
in the cargo department,

loadmaster came
to me and said,

"We need to get upstairs,
'cause we're going to
crash land."

When I get to the top
of the ladder,
I've changed my mind,

and I think I need to be
in the cargo compartment

when this airplane
does get on the runway,

so I can help evacuate
down there.

As I try to leave,
the flight engineer

grabbed me by my left elbow,
throws me into a seat.

And about the time
I hit the seat,

I can hear
the ground screaming.

It's a loud scream.
It's coming closer.

Prepare for
an imminent crash landing.

Get down on the floor!

Prepare for
emergency landing!

Mom, get down!

When we started
to go down,

my mother and I
were focusing on,

"What should we be doing
to brace for impact?"

We had a big open field
in front of us.

I got within about 200 feet
of the ground,

I said...

We're going in!

The plane
is hurtling
towards the ground

at almost
500 kilometers per hour.

I reached down,
grabbed my seatbelt...

And when
the seatbelt snaps...

We touched the ground
relatively easily

and we popped
back in the air.

The jumpseat said to me,

"Bud, we're going
to make it."

But I could see
looming ahead of me
was this huge, huge river.

So I added power.

My mom was
on one side of the aisle,

and I was on the other.

And she says, "Come over here
and sit with me."

Even with full power,
at that point,
I was still continuing to sink.

My whole life
went into slow motion,

The airplane is coming apart
where I'm sitting.

All kinds of debris
is flying through the air.

And it went on and on and on.
It seemed like forever.

When I was
going upside down,

I remember saying, you know,
goodbye to my wife
a couple of times.

'Cause I was a goner.

And then... it was quiet.

When the plane came to a stop,
I looked for my mom.
I didn't see her anywhere.

At that point,
it was all a little bit surreal,

that I didn't even really know
what had just happened.

All I knew was that we needed
to get the babies out of there.

Traynor
and the rest of the cockpit crew
have survived.

When I stepped
out of the window,

it was clear
after you looked around,

the airplane broke up
into its component parts.

The tail dropped off.

The flight deck broke away.

The troop compartment,
the wings, they separated
from the cargo compartment.

The cargo compartment itself
disintegrated, essentially.

Behind the cockpit,
the plane's wings,

which hold the fuel tanks,
are burning.

The passenger section
of the plane
is largely intact,

and separated
from the scorching heat
of the burning wings.

Lieutenant Wirtz
and many others

who have been
in the passenger section,
survive.

Then we started
bringing babies out.

And I could hear
some helicopters coming.

At that point, I was not
looking for my mother,

because I had been assured
that she was okay.

I was to go to the hospital
and just wait for her there.

And then that's when I took
a couple of the babies
and walked over,

and got on.

A day that began
with the promise of hope,

has ended in disaster.

Just minutes after the crash
of the first Babylift mission,

rescue workers are on the scene
searching for survivors.

Almost everyone
in the cargo area
was killed instantly...

when the plane slammed down
the second time.

The dead, the injured
and the survivors

are taken to hospitals
in Saigon and Thailand.

Since I was not injured,
I just took a seat
and was waiting for my mother

while they brought in
a lot of the babies.

Then somebody came over to me
and told me
that my mother had died.

I remember holding on
for dear life,

so she said, "Come over here
and sit with me."

Barb Adams'
last decision was to be
near her daughter.

Just as I sat down
on the floor,
we must have hit.

She flew forward somewhere.

And that's the last time
I saw my mother.

175 people
survived the crash
of the Air Force jet,

but more than 150
have been killed.

More than half of them
were children.

And it was really such a blow

in what had already been
a very tragic,

sad story of the collapse
of South Vietnam.

And then,
who would have thought

that in the middle
of all that tragedy,

the American Air Force
would crash

a plane full
of Vietnamese babies
and small children.

The investigation
begins immediately.

The next day,
along with the investigators,

Captain Bud Traynor returns

to the smoldering wreckage
of his plane...

on a special mission
of his own.

I had to leave a couple
of crew members
out at the aircraft.

And so, I went back
the next morning.

The bodies
of two dead crewmen

are still pinned down
by the wreckage.

So we took a
lot of tie down chains,

put them together...

did the old heave-ho
with a whole lot of people

to move the flap of wreckage
that was pinning
the two crew members.

And we got them
out of there.

It's always important
to finish the job.

And we did.

But then, I had
a very naive approach

to what was going
to happen next.

I kind of envisioned
the guys in the silver helmets
would put out the white rope.

This was going to be
a secure site.

But that was when
I got the shock that,

"Hey, there are
no guards out here."

There was
a Vietnamese soldier

going through my suitcase,
wearing my flight jacket.

He had an AR-15
and I didn't.

That's my jacket.

I'm Bud Traynor.

And we established
that my coat...

had the same name on it...

That's mine.

...as my flight suit.
And so, the coat
he was wearing was mine.

So he begrudgingly
gave me my coat,

and then proceeded to go through
the rest of my suitcase.

It's not only
Traynor's jacket.

Looters are picking
the plane clean.

Dave Scheiding is a structural
engineer with the Air Force.

When we got to the site,
we had some concern
to begin with because there was

a tremendous amount
of civilian people out there
actually picking up parts,

which, of course, that didn't
help us much as far as
the investigation goes.

He's part of a team
that goes to Saigon

to try to figure out
why the plane crashed.

This investigation
was very unique
from a couple of standpoints.

The first standpoint, of course,
the people taking
parts away from us.

But second, the country
was in extreme chaos.
It was essentially falling.

Frank Huskin is also part
of the investigative team.

The NVA and the Vietcong
are all around, and...

we were only out there
during the daytime.

But it was
a very uncomfortable feeling.

Very uncomfortable feeling.

One of the first things
we wanted to rule out
was sabotage and a bomb.

So we brought in dogs
from the Philippines,
bomb sniffing dogs.

Take him back there
to the rear of the plane.

With North Vietnamese
soldiers so close,

a direct attack or sabotage
are obvious theories.

Initially,
they had all thought that
it had been a bomb placed

in the luggage compartment,

or it had been a missile
that shot the plane down.

During the rush
to board the aircraft,

personal luggage was loaded,
but not thoroughly checked.

This added to the speculation
that a bomb may have been
smuggled on board.

The dogs find
no trace of a bomb,

and investigators
find no evidence

of explosive residue
on the plane.

It clearly wasn't attacked.

But something had caused
the cargo door to fail.

We had to find the doors,
if at all possible, to...

make sure that we didn't have
a problem with other C5s

that would cause
this type of crash.

Soon, the massive C5-As
will be desperately needed

to get America
out of Vietnam.

Finding out what happened
to this one
couldn't be more urgent.

It was beyond important.

At the time, we had
approximately 100 C5 aircraft.

We grounded the C5s
until such time
that we could figure out

one, what the problem was,

and two,
what were we going to do

to prevent it
from happening again?

Hey, guys!

As they examined
the wreckage,

investigators also try
to find out

why the crew had such difficulty
controlling the plane.

Look how this is sheared off.

The cables that
Ray Snedegar saw
leaking hydraulic fluid

were the ones that controlled
the plane's elevator.

Since the elevator
controls pitch,

Captain Traynor had no way
of guiding his plane
up and down.

Cargo bay!

- Declare an emergency.
- Saigon, emergency.

Immediate return to base.

When there's no control
of the elevator,

which allows
for up and down pitch,

an airplane will set up
an oscillation up and down.

His oscillation started

as nose was going down,
and then it picked up speed,

and then it started
pitching up.

A falling plane's
aerodynamic properties

will force it to follow
a predictable pattern.

As lift increases, the nose
naturally tilts upwards.

Without the elevators
to counteract the motion,

it will continue
until the plane moves so slowly

that it stalls,
falling back to the ground.

It explains the strange motion
of the giant C5-A.

By adjusting
the thrust of his engines,

Traynor was able to keep the jet
from rising and falling.

Investigators believe
the cables were sheared off

when the cargo door
exploded from the plane.

But they still don't know why
the door failed
in the first place.

Then we made the determination
we were going to have to try
and find the doors.

But the doors are
somewhere at the bottom
of the South China Sea.

Our next problem
was trying to figure out
the ballistics of those doors.

Nobody had ever even thought
of figuring out ballistics

of two doors flying through
the air from 23,000 feet.

Relying on the air speed
and the altitude

at the moment
of decompression,

investigators learn
the plane was 46 kilometers
from the coast of Vietnam.

When the doors went out,
the airplane was moving
across the water

at about 600 feet
per second.

Therefore, we had to come down
with a pretty good estimate...

for the Navy to even know
where to look.

Ships from
the US Seventh Fleet

crisscross the South China Sea
looking for the rear door.

For the first several days,
they can't find anything.

The South China Sea
has swallowed the evidence.

At the crash site,
investigators are becoming
increasingly frustrated.

A great deal of wreckage
has been stolen by scavengers.

An important clue could be
among the pieces taken away.

To retrieve these parts,
the Air Force offers
to buy them back.

The strategy was
to provide leaflets

throughout the city of Saigon
and the surrounding area.

We want every piece of material
from the aircraft back,

and we will also pay you
if you will turn this into us.

Eleven days
after the crash,

flyers are delivered
to local officials

and distributed
throughout the city.

Investigators do
eventually recover the camera

that was used by a film crew
on board the plane.

They hope it could show them
exactly what happened.

But the film inside the camera
has already been removed.

Another piece of the wreck
turned in during
the buyback program

is just what
they're looking for.

We were trying to get
the black boxes back,

because that's the thing
we really wanted.

All C5-As are fitted
with a computer system

that records vital information
about the plane's operation.

It records engine settings,
air speed, altitude,

and hundreds
of other parameters
onto a magnetic tape.

The system is called MADAR,
Malfunction Detection Analysis
and Recording System.

It wasn't found
at the crash site.

The MADAR is
eventually returned
for a reward,

but it proves to be
a disappointment.

It didn't identify
the reason for the doors
and the ramps failing,

but it did provide us
a sequence of events,

in a lot of areas,
including altitude,
airspeed...

the performance
of the aircraft itself
during that time frame.

As investigators
continue to look
for the cause of the crash,

the situation in Vietnam
gets worse.

Two days
after they received
the MADAR,

the South Vietnamese
President resigns.

On April the 23rd,
100,000 North Vietnamese troops
approach Saigon.

The noose around the city
is tightening.

While we were out
in the rice paddy,

you could see burning hamlets
and villages, and...

in the distance,
they were on fire.

You could hear the explosions
and so forth, mortars...

While the situation
in Vietnam continues to unravel,

the US Navy
finally has some
success at sea.

On April the 26th,

they find the cargo ramp
and part of the pressure door
of Traynor's plane.

If investigators
don't find the answers here,

they may not
find them anywhere.

They're running out of time,
and they're
running out of leads.

When the ramp is examined,
investigators make
a disturbing discovery.

On that ramp,
two of the stirrups
were in great condition.

They were perfect.
They had not failed.

So obviously, it told us that
at least two of the locks
had just unlocked themselves.

The C5-A has
14 locks holding
the rear cargo door shut,

seven on each side.

The door recovered from the sea
tells investigators that,
for some reason,

three of the locks designed
to hold it shut

had either unlocked in flight,
or had never locked at all.

This flight was actually
like a ticking bomb.

When they closed the ramps,
all those locks would look like

they were in a locked position.

When it took off,
the fuse was lit.

And as the aircraft climbed out,
the fuse kept burning.

As the plane
climbed away from Saigon...

Gear up.

...the pressure
outside the jet dropped.

The air inside pushed
with increasing force
against the cargo door.

Then, as the plane passed
through 23,000 feet

with three latches unlocked,
the pressure on the door
was too much.

With the three locks
that failed
all in a row,

it was just too much load
for the other four locks
to actually pick up.

And what's resulted
in a catastrophic failure
of the ramp itself.

But investigators
still don't know
why the locks failed.

Before they can
find the answer,

the situation in Vietnam
deteriorates completely.

Saigon is under siege.

On April the 27th,

the investigators take
all of the evidence they can
and leave.

It's simply too dangerous
to stay.

When we left Saigon,

we were the last two C-141s
to leave Johnson airbase.

They were essentially losing
their country at that time,

and after that it was
only helicopters that got out.

Investigators hope
they have
all the clues they need

to solve
the mystery of the crash.

They know they won't be
coming back to Vietnam
to look for any more.

April the 30th, 1975.

The war in Vietnam ends.

From the rooftop
of the American Embassy,

the last remaining Americans
in Vietnam are flown to safety.

Back in the United States,
investigators continue
their work.

Since the C5 is in service
around the world,

they need to know why
three locks
on the cargo door failed.

When we got back to Texas,
it was to help us verify
the failure sequence.

Investigators discover
something potentially alarming

about the cargo plane's
rear door.

Parts from the C5-A were
actually removed from the plane,

cannibalized to service
another cargo plane.

The locks on the rear door
of the C5-A

are connected to each other
by a series of tie rods.

The rods can be lengthened
or shortened to ensure
the locks are completely closed.

It's these tie rods
which were removed
from the Babylift plane.

At the time,
the enormous cargo planes
were in constant demand.

The Air Force was
very short of parts,

and so they came up with
a standard practice
for maintenance

that they could cannibalize
parts off of aircrafts
that are not being flown.

It's authorized and it's...
It's a good operation if...

if you respect it
and treat it properly,

The tie rods were replaced
before the Babylift plane
left for Saigon,

but for some reason,
they hadn't held.

To try to figure out
what happened,

investigators rebuild
one of the locks

that was supposed to keep
the rear door closed.

We essentially built
a working model of that ramp.

And we had to do that,
because we didn't get
all the parts back,

because the people
picking them up,

parts out in the ocean
and everything
that we never got back.

Investigators aren't convinced

that the problem is
in the basic design
of the lock.

They suspect that before
the plane left California,

the engineers
who replaced the rods

didn't follow
the proper procedures.

When we're talking
about the locks,

the distances
that we're talking about
are very, very small.

We could be talking about
a 16th, 32nd
of an inch difference

between being locked
and unlocked.

The re-rigging
was done before the plane
left the United States.

After the locks
were re-rigged,

they should have checked
to make sure
they were working.

That wasn't done.

Without the check,
no one would have noticed

that the re-rigging
was done improperly.

I would say
that this accident
actually started

back at Travis Air Force Base
in California.

When the two tie rods that
had been cannibalized earlier
were replaced,

they were
not installed properly.

Loadmaster,
close cargo bay door.

When the door
was opened and shut in Saigon,

there was a warning
that not everything
was perfect.

We had some difficulty
getting it to lock,

so we had to
open and close it
three, four times.

But it seemed to be routine,
and in the heat of the moment...

we didn't... we didn't think
anything about it.

But 12 minutes
after liftoff,

as the plane
continued to climb,

the three
improperly closed locks

were forced open
by the building air pressure.

The remaining locks
could not take
the extra load.

The cargo door burst open
and was torn off the fuselage.

You just can't
take shortcuts.

And if you just pulled
a couple of rods out,
run out and put them back in,

that's not going to hack it.

The investigators
have found their answers

and in their final report,
make specific recommendations

that will make
the C5-A safer.

As a result, the Air Force
designs a pin
that slips through each lock.

If the door isn't properly shut,
the pins can't slide into place.

We essentially
Murphy-proofed it
by putting steel pins in there

so that when the lock
is in the over-center position,

if you can insert
these safety pins,

then you know that the system
is properly rigged.

Ray Snedegar
retired from the Air Force
as a Chief Master Sergeant.

This mission...

was probably
the most discouraging
in some ways,

based on part of the outcome.

Pilot! Cargo bay!

But also,
it was refreshing
in the fact that...

we displayed
such good airmanship,
such courage,

and we were able to save
so many people.

After 28 years
of service, Bud Traynor retired
from the Air Force as a Colonel.

I think everyone
second guesses themselves,

to see if there was
something else
that they could do.

I am very fortunate in that
I never found something

that I said,
"I sure wish I had done X."

It just wasn't there.

That pilot
did a super job.

The fact that anybody survived
this crash is just remarkable.

The ones that were saved
are very fortunate

that that particular crew
was in charge of that aircraft.

Being a pilot myself

and knowing
that it only had one aileron
and four engines...

by rights, they all
should have been dead.

The Investigation Board
does not normally

recommend decorations.

That's not part
of their job.

But in this case,
we recommended
to the Air Force

that they be considered
for a high decoration.

Surviving crew members
including Captain Bud Traynor

and Sergeant Ray Snedegar
were awarded medals
by the Air Force

for heroism
and extraordinary
achievement.

One of the orphans
that survived
was baby Ina.

Today, she's known
as Kelly Jackson-Brownlee.

April 4th, 1975.

It's definitely
a pivotal point in my life,

where I left

part of myself behind
in Vietnam.

When Operation Babylift resumed,

Kelly, along with hundreds
of other orphans,

were flown to
the United States.

She was eventually adopted
by a family
near Seattle, Washington.

There was
a 25-year anniversary
in April of 2000,

and it brought together
all of the adults

that were adopted
from Vietnam.

And... I ended up
meeting someone
who was very special,

and actually
ended up marrying.

Chris Brownlee
and his wife, Kelly,

were both airlifted
out of Vietnam
on April the 5th, 1975,

one day after the crash.