Mystery of Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, March 16, 1962

On March 16. 1962, a Lockheed Super Constellation carrying 107 passengers and crew, including 93 soldiers of the US Army, disappeared without a trace. It is an enduring and unexplained mystery of the Vietnam era.
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[@TL-angzarr]

My grandfather flew for Tigers for a bit over 40 years. He spent a short time as a right seater on the DC4 before being moved up to the Connie as a captain. He spent many years flying the Connie and loved it. This incident was always a mystery to even the company. But it was assumed to be a catastrophic failure with the R3350 engines. He always commented how communication could be unreliable far out over the pacific. We look at these crashes with modern expectations but in 1962 flying was a very different game.

[@tonydagostino6158]

Mysteriously similar to the story of the C-124 Globemaster full of nuclear specialists that disappeared over the Atlantic in 1951, also told in an earlier video by THG.

[@jimpoulsen9604]

It was interesting to see that the background footage of the cockpit and crew was taken from an Eastern Airlines promotional film from 1953. The "captain" in the film is Arthur Godfrey, a radio and TV personality of the time, who was also an accomplished pilot. An interesting part of the film, obviously not shown in THG presentation, is Mr. Godfrey performing a cigarette commercial from the cockpit. Later in his life, he became a vocal critic of cigarette use and cigarette companies.

[@kevinhorne7881]

I recognized Godfrey too! Good catch!

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

The film is in the public domain and has great footage in a Connie cockpit. It also includes Eddie Rickenbacker.

[@jimpoulsen9604]

Thank you for the reminder about Eddie Rickenbacker. I had forgotten about that.

[@cbroz7492]

..I remember watching Arthur Godfrey's TV shows in the 1950s with my mom..and the dancing 'Old Gold' cigarette boxes...

[@luannnelson547]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannelhave you ever done a video on the Eastern Airlines crash in Atlanta in 1941? We used to own a business in Morrow very close to where that crash occurred. The pilot had been flying for an excessive number of hours and was flying in bad weather. When Rickenbacker realized what was happening, he got out of seat and ran toward the rear of the plane, which is thought to be why he survived.

[@167curly]

Not knowing their loved ones' fate is awful for those people's families.

[@azzir325]

They were at cruising altitude, a huge flash, and vaporized.

[@frequentlycynical642]

@@azzir325 Not the worst way to go. At all.

[@ElectroDFW]

Additionally, without a definite cause, or even declaration, of death, it's likely the families never got their military spouse survivor benefits.

[@Ed_Stuckey]

In 1962 I was a passenger on a Super Constellation from New Jersey to San Francisco. This was for transportation from my US Army advanced training at Fort Dix, New Jersey to Oakland, California for further transportation via a WWII troop ship to South Korea. One month later, the ship docked in Yokohama, Japan where we were transported to the Osan Air Base in South Korea via a C-47.

[@paulholmes672]

My Dad was a Flight engineer on the EC-121 "Super Connie" from 1959 to 1968 for the USAF. His missions were, typically, 20-22 hour patrol missions on the East Coast from Maine to Bermuda. The only concerns he had over the airplane's relative safety was the Wright R3350 Turbo Compound motors and the vulnerability to air threats in SEA. On the former, the Turbo Compounds with their "Parts Recovery Turbines", took a lot of management care in regards to oil and turbine temperatures, and mismanaging either in-flight would cause the R3350 to start eating valves. As a MSgt and Squadron instructor, he had a great record of success in bringing home "4 Turning" at the end of those missions. The point being, the aircraft never had any real issue of "out of the blue" explosion dangers, so the Flying Tiger loss will always be a mystery unless the DOD finally fesses up to what was REALLY on that aircraft, heading for a war zone. The only other thing he worried about was vulnerability, and he retired after 27 years so he wouldn't have to do a tour in Vietnam. With a full year of combat as a B-17 Flight Engineer Top Gunner, he'd seen his share of combat and threats, but the Connie could be as slow and unarmed, and they were unescorted for all the flying. IIRC, 5 Connies were lost in combat operations, and I believe two or three of those were confirmed MIG losses. One note on your montage of aircraft during your presentation, one was an R7V-2 (EC-121F), which was atypical of Super Constellation configurations in that it had T34 Turboprops, the same as the C-133 Cargomaster.

[@efromhb]

My dad flew those same missions out of Maine. Wonder if our fathers flew with each other.

[@paulholmes672]

I assume you mean Otis AFB Massachusetts. Yes, he was there from 1957 to 1968, serving in both the 961st and 962nd AEWC Squadrons.

[@snotgurgletroll1812]

I really appreciate when you post the names at the end of such episodes!!!

[@stylus2253]

My Dad flew a Conny for Eastern. He started on the DC-3 (he remembered flying the one in Smithsonian by the serial #) and finished his career on the L-1011.

[@leefearn9007]

the L-1011 had a very bad reputation too they had a lot of reliability problems pilots and aircrew didnt like the L-1011 and they were involved in lots of air accidents and crashes

[@WAL_DC-6B]

@@leefearn9007 The Lockheed L-1011 was one of the best loved, early, wide body jetliners. Most if not all of the crashes it was involved in were due to pilot error.

[@stylus2253]

@@WAL_DC-6B When my dad was based in Miami, he went on a trip and I happened to be visiting my parents. Something told me he would have trouble landing. I didn't say anything, but just prayed for safety. When he got back he related how on approach to Miami a flight attendant was on the flight deck and shouldn't have been and he said, Look out! They then proceeded to rise up over the wake of an Aero Mexico 727 as it flew across their path. That was way too close for comfort.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

@@stylus2253 Indeed too close.

[@gulfcoastaero8048]

@@leefearn9007I think you are thinking of the DC-10. The L1011 only had 7 hull loss accidents. 1 was mechanical and the other 6 weather or pilot error.

[@alantoon5708]

I have read the CAB report on the crash. No probable cause was ever established, let alone an educated guess. No evidence was ever found. Thank you for remembering this accident.

[@eddiemclean7011]

I flew on the final flight of Flying Tigers Airlines hauling Marines from Hamburg Germany to Cleveland Ohio in 86. Rough flight over the North Atlantic in a storm. We were allowed to take anything off the bird that wasn't bolted down as a souvenir. Missed opportunity.

[@RetiredSailor60]

Good Friday morning History Guy and everyone watching....Stay safe and warm during this Arctic Blast coming in this holiday weekend.... RIP to all 107 crew & passengers (Soldiers)

[@zodszoo]

Forever Rest In Peace, Airmen and Soldiers. Your Duty is Complete, Stand Down from Your Watch, and be at Ease. We'll carry on from here. *SALUTE and GODSPEED* 🇺🇸 🦅🪖

[@RickA440]

This story was of particular interest to me as after hearing the route and waypoints between Travis AFB and Clark AFB I realized I had flown the same route in 1965. as a Navy Airman, I was ultimately destined for the USS Kitty Hawk CVA63 Aircraft Carrier. This flight was also by Flying Tigers, but on a regular large airliner powered by 4 jet engines. Very exciting for a California lad, first stopping for 2 hours in Hawaii (So I got to see Hawaii out the plane and termanal windows), then a very memorable stop at Wake Island with the plane needing every foot of a short shoreline to shoreline runway for take-off, then a night time stop a Guam, complete with hot rain, finally ending safely at Clark Field, so I did better than the folks in your presentation, thankfully.. Thank you for bringing these exciting memories to me. I am now 79 years old and live at the Masonic Home in Union City, CA

[@johnallen9611]

When my family flew via a Connie from Guam to Travis AFB in 1960, we had stops at Wake and Oahu. I remember watching out the window as we descended to Wake, seeing water and more water as we got lower and lower until the runway appeared just before we had dropped to water level.

[@kevingreen9283]

Thank you THG for remembering this. It's both sad and frustrating for the families of the lost. Why they can't be added to the Vietnam memorial is mind boggling. I can't help but think someone in our government knows more than what was made public. It's time the truth is released. Thanks as always for great content and presentation. Have a great weekend!

[@SuperCatacata]

More likely that the names on the wall need to have died in Vietnam or within a certain distance of it. Still in poor taste to not put these names on the wall though.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

In the early 1990s I was able to fly several times on a former Slick Airways "Super H" Constellation (6937C) that was restored in TWA colors by the "Save-A-Connie" group out of Kansas City downtown airport. Interesting and sad story on the loss of a Flying Tigers "Connie". Thanks for sharing!

[@stagggerlee]

I got to go on 2 flights on 6937C , as well. I saw lots of Connies in Thailand, and the Connie was 1of my most favorite model airplanes as a youth living just west of Kansas City where I saw them flying over now and then.

[@MsAnneofgreengables]

I had the honor of interviewing Bob Slick twice in the early 2000s. What a character! Really nice guy.

[@rescue270]

The last time I ever saw a Constellation flying was the forner "Save-a-Connie" group's airplane over San Antonio, around 2003. It has since been grounded and its future is uncertain. The last time before that was an RC-121 Warning Star that was still very occasionally being flown out of Kelly AFB, I think as a simulated bomber target for students from Randolph AFB to practice bomber interception. I may have seen it on its last flight, around 1979 or 1980. It has been on static display around the Lackland AFB Parade Ground ever since then, along with a VC-121 Constellation. Lackland has several very rare and very cool aircraft weathering outdoors around that field, including a P-82 Twin Mustang. Before Kelly fell victim to BRAC, I remember seeing a B-29 on display on the base. I don't know if it was moved next door to Lackland.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

@@rescue270 I was at the 2023 EAA Airadventure last year at Oshkosh and was able to witness the restored Lockheed VC-121A Constellation at one time used by General Macarthur named "Bataan." It first made an overhead pass, then landed and taxied in. Quite the sight!

[@jamescstanley5018]

Thank you for reminding us all of the not unusual circumstance of "missing" flights. As a military flight, this one obviously has some secret mission behind it's purpose, and as such, at the time, details were restricted, however, some 60 years on, is there any great need for continued secrecy? No doubt some faceless and unnamed beurocrat at the Pentagon has it within their power to at least relieve some of the anguish felt by the families of the missing, but I would not hold my breath waiting for them to do the decent and humane thing. It was good to see the listing of the missing in such a respectful, dignified and quiet way to conclude such a sad and still unexplained incident. May I take this opportunity to express the sympathies from across the pond to the families of those so tragically lost.

[@jayfrank1913]

It's not a "faceless bureaucrat," it's the entire U.S. Army command structure, the Pentagon civilian leadership and the U.S. Congress that is preventing their recognition.

[@boballmendinger3799]

@@jayfrank1913 nevertheless it's shameful.

[@jayfrank1913]

@@boballmendinger3799 True.

[@michaelstearnes1526]

They will probably wait until most of their families have died until releasing any information to the public

[@captainsensiblejr.]

"bureaucrat" from French word for "office". Bureaucrat literally means someone working in an office.

[@HardcoreFourSix]

Another great video from THG. This story brought back some memories.While I was in the USAF (operating and maintaining flight simulators) I worked with a for EC-121 enlisted crewman. He had served in Vietnam and had interesting stories of field-expedient attacks on VC boats. During a job interview, I was tested by attempting to "take off" in a Constellation simulator at Sea-Tac. Finally, while I was in the US Army, I traveled in a Flying Tiger Line 747, not long before they were bought out.

[@jamessimms415]

Flew back from Saudi Arabia & Desert Shield/Storm on an ex-FT 747, may have been the same plane. Wish I’d gotten the N-number & the tail # of the C-141 I flew over on.

[@maxsdad538]

I have 2500 hours on the USAF EC-121 (552nd AEW&C Wg, 79th AEW7C Sq) and consider them the finest and safest recip ever built. But what few people know is that the very day that Flt 739 disappeared (Mar 16th, 1962), a second Flying Tigers chartered Connie carrying "secret military cargo" crashed and was destroyed under suspicious circumstances on Alaska's Aleutian Islands. And while we remember our fallen USAF brothers, let us not forget the many Naval aviators who provided aerial support on their WV-121, often at the expense of their lives (EC121-M, call sign Deep Sea 129).

[@gerardleahy6946]

A Flying Tiger Super Constellation was forced to ditch in the Atlantic, off the Irish coast, also in 1962. Many survived. The ditching was due to multiple engine failure

[@randolphlee4586]

I Am a retired commercial pilot, and as a boy Growing up on Nantucket, I well recall the wonderful sound of the Airforce EC-121Cs of the 551st Airborne Early Warning and Control Wing, based at Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts. (they were upgraded to EC-121D and later EC-121H Warning Stars). These were the Radar picket versions of the Super Constellation, and on the way south to their patrol tracks, they were at max gross weight with the fuel for their long missions and were still quite low in their climb from Otis, just 35 miles to the northwest of my position. I used to listen in on the radio calls they made to the ACK FAA Flight Service Station providing weather information, and more than once, I saw them returning from patrol with an engine out. The history of the development and long service life of the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_R-3350_Duplex-Cyclone could form its own episode of the THG.

[@franklinnoblitt8387]

Three EC-121 were mysteriously lost while flying picket missions off the East Coast

[@chrisgardner4222]

@@franklinnoblitt8387 I believe one of those was from Chincoteague NAS in 1956

[@jvinson4181]

Thank you so much for making this video, and your respect for not only history, but the people who participated in it.

[@raymarshall6721]

Recently read a book about a flying tiger crash of a super constellation. The company as a whole had a horrible safety reputation with the Connie. The majority of the flights with lose at least 1 engine on the flight, a good number of them lost 2. Many of the engine losses were engine fires. I should know that the airline itself wasn't to blame, it was the engines themselves that had so many problems

[@WAL_DC-6B]

For a while, the airline was known as "Falling Tigers."

[@MrTaxiRob]

this was one of four crashes in 1962 alone

[@zodszoo]

They gotta keep up with timely engine maintenance. They were fairly reliable for piston power.

[@randolphlee4586]

@@zodszoo From Wikipedia: "Following the war, the Turbo-Compound[4] system was developed to deliver better fuel efficiency. In these versions, three power-recovery turbines (PRT) were inserted into the exhaust piping of each group of six cylinders and geared to the engine crankshaft by fluid couplings to deliver more power. The PRTs recovered about 20% of the exhaust energy (around 450 horsepower (340 kW)) that would have otherwise been wasted but reduced engine reliability (Mechanics tended to call them Parts Recovery Turbines since increased exhaust heat meant a return of the old habit of the engine destroying exhaust valves)."

[@WAL_DC-6B]

@@zodszoo Indeed the Wright R-3350, radial piston engine was a fairly reliable aircraft power plant. But as a former TWA Constellation pilot once told me, "You had to watch the (gauge) numbers on those engines whereas you could beat the hell out of the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 (as used on TWA's Martin 404s) and not have to worry."

[@georgjrgensen8507]

When reading about KLMs history (I am Dutch) I came across a description of a similar accident with a KLM Connie, about the same time, during a flight from Europe to the USA. It was mentioned in that description that the engines used in the Connies had problems with their turbo systems, which sometimes led to sudden and violent reactions of the stricken engines. They suspect this must have been the case - no trace has been found. The accident with the Dutch Connie resembles your story pretty much. A mechanical failure could very well have been the cause of these accidents. High octane avgas in large quantities and very hot (and broken?) engines are not a nice combination.

[@gerardleahy6946]

I am familiar with that accident in August 1958. Many victims are buried about 1km from my home in Galway, Ireland. The aircraft was PH LKM, fleet name Hugo de Groot and was under a year old. 99 died.

[@georgjrgensen8507]

This was not known to me. Thank ypu for your explanation!@@gerardleahy6946

[@garylawson5381]

I'm old school and so I have my library of DVDs and books. The History Guy channel is unique and informative. A DVD set of your videos would be a great addition to my library.

[@richardkelso9478]

Tragic loss, both of people and a great airplane. I crewed on Super-Connies military version C-121 with the 153rd Military Airlift Wing during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Great aircraft and was good to see the great pictures of it here. Lot of good memories. Thanks

[@josephwarra5043]

"They gave up their tomorrows so that we could have a today." May the Lord Keep them and Bless them always. Amen.

[@skydiverclassc2031]

And, on a separate, probably unrelated point; how small our world has become. 12 hours from California to Hawaii, 6 more to Wake Island, 7 more to Guam, and then an estimated 5 hours to Manila. No wonder they had to change crews.

[@vbscript2]

Unfortunately, this was still back in the day when an airplane disappearing entirely on trans-oceanic flights was still a relatively common occurrence. Piston engines in particular have nowhere remotely near the reliability of modern turbine engines, but also weather was far less predictable - or even observable - back then compared to now, especially out over open ocean. Even into WWII, it was still possible for entire hurricanes or typhoons to be roaming around without aviators and mariners knowing about them. While things had advanced significantly from 1945 to 1962, it was still nothing like today. The very first satellite had been launched only a few years earlier. Even as much as things advanced over the half a century following the loss of Flight 739, we still managed to lose an entire 777 back in 2014, though, granted, a substantial amount of evidence suggests it was deliberately lost. While some debris has been found over the ensuing decade, the main wreckage and the victims still haven't been located to this day and nearly all we know about what happened just comes from radar monitoring hours before its loss, a handful of handshake signals sent to a satellite, and investigations of the backgrounds of the people on board.

[@NavigatEric]

Thank You Lance, for this episode. This truly is history that deserves to be remembered. While all lives are sacred, it touches me most that it involved Army Rangers, being a former Ranger myself, and those two guys from Pennsylvania on the list... RIP brothers.

[@nunyabidness117]

BSAA Flight CS-59 that crashed in 1947 is a fascinating story. It disappeared just short of Santiago and was missing for 50 years when the wreckage suddenly showed up in an area that had been thoroughly searched.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

Was that airliner an Avro Tudor?

[@Steve-GM0HUU]

​@@WAL_DC-6B it was an Avro Lancastrian named "Star Dust". The evidence suggests it flew straight into a mountain and was consumed into a glacier. Pieces of the wreckage started to emerege from the ice in the 1990s as the ice moved down the mountain and thawed. One mystery about this crash was the last message sent by the flight, "STENDEC". It even prompted a Spanish UFO/Conspiracy magazine to use the title STENDEK for it's issues. The mystery of what happened to the wreckage was solved over 50 years later. However, the STENDEC mystery still remains.

[@goldgeologist5320]

Well done Lance. We must never forget those that paid the ultimate price for this formerly great nation.

[@billm2078]

I have to agree with you sadly.

[@ricksaint2000]

Thank you History Guy

[@djohnson9083]

Very interesting and dismaying that the victims of this disappearance were not remembered (except by family members) until so recently. I always find the stories concerning Vietnam quite interesting as when the conflict was ongoing I was a child and didn’t understand much. My mom wouldn’t even tell me why she was watching on television the birthdates of young men who would be called up. She said my brother would be eligible “next year” but she was lying at the time, as I realized much later.

[@sthenzel]

Just like the one guy you got into detail about, each of the military personnel on board has a service history and a very special skill set. If such a large group is picked from various states and units, some even by the president himself, to ensure they could not have conspired or somehow pre-prepared, the mission objectives must have been something, which may not have found everyone´s liking. Ok, the Super Connie may have had a not so good failure rate with her engines and an explosion right in mid-air may very well be possible, but in WWII many 4-engine bombers made it back home with two of their engines failed, shot out or burned out.

[@bbrut3332]

The USAFs EC121D were known to fly well in 3 engines but on 2 engines it was, as I was told, a very gradual descent to sea level or ground level depending on the altitude and distance to terra ferma.

[@kimlground206]

Those WW2 planes returning with dead engines were of earlier design where the design margins were not shaved as tight as on later models like the Constellation. They were also bombers, so they had the option of dumping their bomb load, thereby reducing their weight by 50% or more. For certification in those days the Constellation would have to have demonstrated the ability to stay in the air after loss of two engines not on the same side, but I believe that those demonstrations were done empty and not even with a full fuel load and are thus pretty meaningless in the real world.

[@sthenzel]

All well and true. What I wanted to point out - even catastrophic engine failures did not automatically let them explode mid-air. Those planes have lost altitude due to loss of engines, tumbled from the sky due to loss of lift (wings shot off or blown off by an expolding engine) or broke apart. I cannot easily imagine a scenario where just some mechanical or electrical issues make a plane really explode. I mean, we´ve all seen footage of planes going up in flames on the ground; they burn, often fairly quickly or with a sudden deflagration, but I can´t remember seeing one actually explode with enough violence to rip it to shreds. There´s one possibility though: The men on board were on a sabotage mission and had explosives with them. A small electrical fire in the wrong spot...

[@stuartriefe1740]

20 minutes late for class, twice in a row… Hope Lance didn’t see me sneak in! Greetings from Connecticut. Have a safe and healthy weekend!

[@wolandpersonal2407]

Did anyone else notice a fight nearly breaking out in the hand-to-hand combat demo at 2:20? The guy doing the takedowns keeps kicking his opponents in the back as a finishing move. The first couple of times I was thinking "that guy's kicking them pretty hard isn't he?", then at 2:20 the guy who got taken down gets up visibly angry and ready to take him on for real!

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

R I.P., Passengers & Crew of Flight 739. {Great video, Lance.}

[@tux7758]

My great uncle was on that plane. My great grandparents never gave up hope until the day they died that he would be found

[@NickRatnieks]

With that quote from Richard II you should be going to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Bill's birthplace and also the place where he died. A very sad story regarding the loss of the Super Constellation, all those years ago. A real mystery.

[@sullivanspapa1505]

While I’m not a relative to any of those lost in this truly unfortunate incident, I do appreciate The History Guy honoring those lost in the service of their country!

[@stanwolenski9541]

Thank you for listing the names of those lost in service to our country.

[@Taocat1]

Has anyone ever done a freedom of information request on their mission?

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

As the flight was private, the typical military records were not kept. Records requests have turned up little evidence.

[@shawnr771]

Thank you for the lesson.

[@davidtaylor1384]

Raised in Cullman County, first I've ever heard of this. Lots of Edward's around here.

[@callenclarke371]

Fantastic content THG! These kinds of mysteries fascinate me. Well done!

[@frankgulla2335]

What a great story of an unknown incident in a very sad war.

[@tracyrreed]

I believe you covered a similar story during WWII of a special flight with unknown cargo which disappeared and lights may have been sighted but nothing was ever found. I would love to see the real cargo manifest. Of both these flights.

[@debbieolsoncd5017]

Wow, What a mystery. Thanks for posting.

[@robertphillips6296]

Their names should be added to the Memorial Wall.

[@robinwells8879]

A tour with the history guy does sound rather tempting.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

It’s going to be great!

[@honodle7219]

The world loves a mystery it can never solve.

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

Back in the Saddle Again Naturally

[@sgomez3047]

Damn!! Same on the military for not remembering them! May they be remembering forever! Lets take that trip with HG

[@seathrunmagaoinghous4119]

THANK YOU

[@JudgeD-hc9vw]

when I saw the title, I thought it would be a snippet of Chennault's tigers from WW2. I hadn't heard about this particular tragedy. Speaking of Chennault's Flying Tigers, I read the book authored by Sampson.....wonderful read. Ive read it several times. I searched your vids and see you have one 3 years ago on the ATC....I will watch it now. Cheers.

[@leonb2637]

The 'Super-Connie' was about the last of the large piston aircraft. There was already the shift to the Boeing 707, DC-8 so they ended up being sold to companies like Flying Tiger. They were a beautiful aircraft but the did have those very complex and troublesome Curtiss-Wright R-3350's. My father worked at C-W in New Jersey from about 1952 to 1963. He worked on the rebuilding and testing of these, other C-W engines. I might have some books on them it got from him.

[@JRZ67]

The Flying Tigers were competitors of my father’s company, Shulman Air Freight (1950-1978). I have a newspaper photo from the early 60’s of my dad and uncle with a Flying Tigers Girl ‘mascot’.

[@comshawqueen2534]

Thank you.

[@chasm351]

My dad Mac was station manager for Flying Tigers at Boston's Logan Airport. He knew all the crews and took the loss very hard. My brother and I still often riminess about the several dead head flights to Newark to visit relatives. The fun of playing catch in the almost empty cargo area. This crash set him to drinking so bad they gave him the option to be kicked up to Burbank or out. mom would not go so he was out. I often wonder if I could have been a big wig at the short lived Lucky Tiger Records. Fast forward some years when VP Jay Tufts, who he had hired as a loader, looked him up in Ft. Lauderdale and rehired him to work at the new Miami terminal. They gave him his original signority (sp?) number.

[@J.A.Smith2397]

Very on point details n great unknown story

[@alantoon5708]

The last generation of big reciprocating engines like the R-3350 and R-4360 were exceedingly complex and unreliable.

[@gordonbergslien30]

Each 4360 had 28 cylinders and 56 spark plugs. There was a lot to go wrong. Odd that the search didn't turn up anything, though.

[@alantoon5708]

@@gordonbergslien30 Surely some debris of some type should have been found. Just wonder if some sort of ordnance had been brought on board by soldiers and that detonated. We will never know.

[@jeffsutherland1602]

It's hard to visualize just how big the Pacific Ocean is. I spent several years in the Coast Guard flying out of Hawaii doing search and rescue. When ships go down they seldom leave any trace, much less aircraft. We responded to a freighter in trouble north of Wake Island once. An hour before we reached their reported position I had a target on the radar and an exact fix on their position. As it began to grow light we descended to where the ship should have been, but it had already disappeared from my radar screen. When we reached the spot we tossed out a radio locating beacon to mark the spot. Another plane joined us later that day. We searched back and forth for 4 days over that area, an oil drum and empty life jacket were all that we found.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Yes- the search are was vast and the ocean deep. There is hardly a better place to vanish without a trace.

[@JeffreyGlover65]

Beautiful video. 🇺🇲

[@davidcouch6514]

I was Lawyer for Administrator of a Municipal Pension Plan. The Plan allowed credited service for a person’s military service during the Department of Defense Official Periods of Wartime. I think the Vietnam period specified in the plan commenced during 1964. I think the plan provision was similar to those of thousands of plans across the country at the time.

[@lastnamefirst5469]

Thank you for doing this story! We have to keep this story alive. The families of the missing Rangers have been trying to get the names of the soldiers added to the Vietnam Veteran Memorial in Washington for years, with no luck. The mission was classified and the Government has still not declassified it therefore the families are still left with a hole in their hearts for the soldiers lost and still no closer to getting answers… The families have been told by Officials that the names were not included because the disappearance happened before the U.S. technically became involved in the conflict, despite President Kennedy hand picking those Rangers- all who were specialists in their field for this mission. My uncle was aboard that flight. A final note- the men were on Flight 739. All of their equipment was on an entirely different Flying Tiger Plane of the same model that also departed the same day, however, that plane catastrophically failed during takeoff.

[@jerrylondon2388]

Around this time, my family was returning home to the U.S. from my fathers (USAF) assignment at RAF Alconbury in the UK. As we were flying a MATS charter flight, my brother, mother, and myself were required to have dog tags made. Quite exciting for an 8 year old boy ( still have them). The charter flight was operated by Flying Tiger. None of the adults on the flight were happy about having to take a MATS flight as opposed to a scheduled airline, there was a lot of grumbling. Even as a kid I picked up on this. Shortly after take off one of the engines (propeller, not jet) burst into flames, necessitating an emergency landing at Shannon Airport in Ireland. My recollection was we were on the ground for 6-8 hours, then advised "back on the plane" a couple of thousand miles over the Atlantic to go! The flight itself was uneventful, the slight delay meant the meal service was out of sync, waffles for dinner. And the latest in in flight entertainment was on hand. A movie screen was erected at the front of the cabin with a movie projector set up in the aisle. If you were in the front you saw the movie, in the rear you heard the movie. The flight was miserable, rough, apparently unpressurized (or badly pressurized) as everyone was constantly trying to pop their ears. This was my first airplane ride as well. Previously, we had always been deployed by boat. So, an engine on fire and an emergency landing seemed par for the course from all the movies I'd seen up to that point. Only when older did I realise what a fly by night operation Flying Tiger actually was. I seem to remember the plane arriving at Wright -Patterson, though I may be mistaken. And waiting several days for my father to fly to New York to pick up the family car which preceeded us from England. For a Flying Tiger plane to just disappear as did Flight 739 does not seem unusual for the time, nor the airline. Chewing gum, spit, and baling wire appears to have been normal maintenance as far as Flying Tiger was concerned, from what I have subsequently heard. And they were eventually dropped as a contractor as I recall, or just went belly up.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Great story! Thank you for sharing! Actually, Flying Tiger Line continued flying both as a commercial cargo carrier and as a regular contractor for the military until 1988. Airline deregulation and some poor business decisions damaged profitability and the line was sold to Federal Express.

[@MikeGratis]

I've heard this story a few times over the years; but you gave some additional insight. Always appreciate hearing stories and info about Connies, a my Dad flew them in the United States Air Force until he was discharged in 1958. 🤗 Also, a very good memorial to those lost, honoring them for all time. God Bless. ☦

[@pherdantler707]

In the early 70's I was in the USAF and was being transported in an AF C-121 (Super Constellation) over the south China sea where we encountered a terrible typhoon. These were the days before weather satellites. Ship reports were the only source of weather info out in the oceans. The rain was so intense it literally pushed the aircraft downward towards the ocean. We threw out anything out the back door that was possible to lighten the aircraft. The plot then issued the command to prepare to ditch so we we climbed into exposure (poobie') suits and donned parachutes. We lucked out, pulling out of the typhoon at about a thousand feet. Connies were heavy and as noted by others, prone to engine loss. Weather was a big deal in the days of piston aircraft.

[@patriciasmith4800]

Very sad and perplexing. Makes me wonder what really happened.

[@Rincypoopoo]

Of significance I think are the two instances of engine maintenance on the flight. Both involve more than one engine and both are electrical. What was burning out ignition coils ? Perhaps the underlying problem in the electrical system took out insulation and set the fuel and airframe ablaze. The ship saw an aircraft fire. Flying Tigres had a bad record for crashes. A real effort was made to find them. The ocean is huge and it will kill you when it is ready and swallow the evidence. What more do we need ? Lost like Malaysian Airlines.

[@shawnmiller4781]

One of two Connies Flying Tigers lost on the same day. They had one clip the dike at Adak Alaska the same day. The flight engineers panel pinned him in his seat and because of a previous hijacking the CAA had put in a place a rule that removed the crash axe from the cockpit. They had no way to cut him out of the aircraft so had to leave him behind and the post-crash fire got him.

[@danielgardner394]

The first great civilian pilots were USAF veterans who were victorious in WW2. They' flew this coop long ago.

[@russwoodward8251]

An amazing story. Thanks for the research and the fine quality of the presentation. And are you serious? I would love to take a History Guy trip. What a great promo.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Yes, absolutely serious about the trip, which will be a hoot.

[@mikeklaene4359]

In 1968 the Military Airlift Command was still using Flying Tiger. I, and a bunch of other Army guys, travelled from Travis to Bangkok, Thailand on a Flying Tiger's DC-8.

[@robert48044]

I always forget there was different specialist classes back then

[@Mtlmshr]

No matter what I must say that I love the outfit you are wearing😜the jacket is fantastic and the tie is simply marvelous! I wish I had both!

[@blackstone777]

I find it quite odd the gov't confirms what the crew of the cargo ship saw was the plane exploding, and yet they can't find any debris. Odd...very odd..

[@shawnr771]

In an ocean if the ship was a mile off in their guess of impact location they would not have seen anything.

[@paulevans3261]

Rest in Peace to the passengers and crew!

[@fieldsm135]

Another wonderful video, thanks for all your work, we appreciate it. Never will know, but Occam's for me would be fuel leak, with vapors igniting. I don't think they had the same problem of the KC-135 with the aft fuel tank when low the fuel pump can ignite, have to look up on this aircraft.

[@madcapmagician6018]

The fireball that was described by the ship crew sounds eerily like that of an air to air nuclear missile , the description of a molten glowing object falling to the ocean... The lack of debris and wreckage also supports this, the immense secrecy of the mission and the lack of government acknowledgement is also suspect. As to why the rangers would have one of these devices on a civilian transport? Possibly an assassination attempt on the leaders of North Vietnam? The cause of the explosion ... Malfunction..

[@cm5971]

OMG! Those early video clips are from Victory Pond on Fort Benning!

[@kimlground206]

A friend served several tours in VietNam. Troops were transported back and forth on 'lowest bidder' charter flights (jets, later in the war than this incident). He had several interesting stories about those flights including one incident where he watched the number 3 engine pod fall off the aircraft and six miles into the ocean below. They landed safely. If I were thinking conspiracy theory here my first question would be, "How many places could this aircraft have reached on the remaining fuel after the last confirmed location (not just the pilot radioing 'all good we are where we are supposed to be'), and how many of those locations had a big enough flat place to land a Connie. Not very many I suspect. Sabotage sounds like a more likely explanation to me.

[@robertweinmann9408]

Flying Tigers were still doing MAC charters into the late '70s. I flew to and from my Okinawa duty station on a Flying Tigers 707. It was used. You could still see the outline of the previous airline owner(TWA I think).

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

Speaking of mysterious flight disappearances.... have you ever looked at the mysterious disappearance of one of Pan Am's clippers? The Hawaii Clipper in 1938?🤔🛫 I asked because it disappeared following the same flight route....

[@pierceaero3005]

Wow. As if it never was. I hate that. I never heard of this before. I most certainly knew the Connie. They parked one outside of Lockheed Aircraft Manufacturing in Burbank when my father worked there. We rode our little Stingray bicycles over to meet him after he got off from work and would see all the old historic aircraft there. My 8th grade history class was about 1200 feet from the runway. It was taught by a tough old ex-L.A.P.D. right out of a 1940s Noir movie. Like Nick Nolte in Mullholland Falls complete with postwar war era cynicism. Funny guy. History was literally over our heads. This was the place Lockheed had to build a camoflauge suburb over after Warner Brother's cartoon division "Termite Terrace" put a sign on their roof with an arrow saying "Lockheed Thataway", so Japanese Zeros would not mistake them for aircraft manufacture, thus endangering everyone that worked at the aircraft manufacturing plant and every child beneath that camoflauge suburb. Also on this school campus then was Lori Maddox. The famous groupie dating David Bowie that schoolyear. Our history teacher knew that much as an ex-cop, I recall, but never mentioned this history so pertinant to that camoflauge suburb. They were beautuful planes but I gathered there were a few crashes. That history teacher had a flair for the dramatic. Proximity to Warner Brothers and other studios had that effect on many there. He would have loved to present this history in class! There are freeway constructs there, embossed with the 3D image of the Lockheed P-38, they are so iconic to the area there where Jay Leno stores his cars. There were a lot of people there, now gone, that would want them memorially embossed at least in freeway constructs. Better in D.C. though where their families request. This story touched down beneath that cartoon inspired camoflauged suburb. Loved it. Thank you. 😊

[@michaelroloson2389]

There may be more to this than meets the eye. By ones saying they may have signed their death warrant makes me wonder if they had something secret on the plane that only a select few knew about. And to this day they still will not say what it is. I served during the Cold War and there are things that will go to the grave with some. I know, it sucks.

[@kirbygriffin]

Spark plugs at Wake Island seems to scream engine problems

[@arlisspropertyservicesllc5943]

Piston/radial engines were quite well known for eating spark plugs. Common for bombers to do complete plug swaps after each flight during W2.

[@jblyon2]

@@arlisspropertyservicesllc5943 Especially old copper tipped plugs. People seem to forget just how often they needed to be changed in car engines too.

[@festungkurland9804]

and other ignition problems before that, they were definitely chasing some problem

[@geowidman]

Regarding the listing for “Sgt Clarence Gananca, Renasalner, NY” could it be that what was meant was “Sgt Clarence Gananca, Rensselaer, New York?" "Rensselaer" is commonly misspelled! BTW, about 1968 I did a personal inspection of one of those Flying Tiger (CIA) Super Connies at Cubi Point NAS at Subic Bay, P.I., - dripping with fluids."

[@kristinwinter5006]

Interesting that there didn't seem to be any commissioned officers listed as being on board.

[@maxsdad538]

It was a charter aircraft, most of the crew would have been civilians. And the aircraft commander was a Capt. Gregory Thomas.

[@kristinwinter5006]

@@maxsdad538I wasn't referring to the crew. I was referring to the military contingent that was headed, apparently, for some mission, yet no commissioned officers. Just seemed a bit odd to me.

[@captainsensiblejr.]

The Super Constellation was probably the most beautiful airliner ever built. Unreliable engines, though.

[@michaelmoloney5518]

Brilliant as ever great storytelling

[@ericmason349]

I would have thought that the specifics of this flight would have been elucidated since over 50 years has passed.

[@fokkerd3red618]

I do know one thing. That pilot they kept showing was Radio broadcaster and entertainer Arthur Godfrey.

[@foo219]

Friendly fire is such a weird euphemism. And it's kinda telling when a country's armed forces needs a shorthand term to describe something like that.

[@teemoto3923]

Interesting 3 of 93 Soldiers where from Sierra Vista/Huachuca City area. Small when I grew up there, can imagine being even smaller when they enlisted.

[@76629online]

Highly unlikely it exploded, mid-air. If that had been the case then there would have been large amounts of debris on the surface of the sea. There's no way that happened and not a single piece of relevant debris was located.

[@georgewnewman3201]

Flying Tiger Line had 18 crashes/lost aircraft in its corporate lifetime; the most with any one type of plane was 7 Connie's and the worst year was 1962 with four crashes and all 4 were Connie's. This was the second crash in less than two days, and in 1962 alone crashes killed a total of 144 passengers, crew and ground personnel. The second most wrecked aircraft type by Flying Tiger Line was the 747 with three crashes/incidents and 4 fatalities; the fleets of Douglas C-54, Curtis C-46, Canadair CL-44, and Douglas DC-8s operated by Flying Tiger each contributed 2 to the total number of crashes killing 22 passengers and crew and in the case of one of the CL-44 crashes, 24 Dec 1966 outside of Da Nang, 107 ground personnel, making that the deadliest of all 19 [sorry, 18] crashes.

[@KelpieDog]

When are you going to do one of your tours here to sunny Australia? :)

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Not on the schedule yet, but I’d love to!

[@Dan-gg8fk]

As a pilot i can understand why the focus is on the cause of the accident. I just wish as much attention was given to the results. God bless all those patriots and crew.

[@rayscherry2383]

Where did you get the mug from 12 o clock high on your top shelf ,good story never heard about that airplane

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

It was a gift from a viewer