Today in History – November 29, 1970 – C-123K Transport crash takes 3 F-100 pilots

29 November 1970 – It was a very bad day. For the 3rd time in two days, there was an accident with a U.S. Air Force Fairchild C-123K Provider transport. On November 29th, 3 F-100 pilotS: 1Lt Elmon C. “Mike” Caudill (615TFS), 1Lt Charles Louis Kollenberg (352TFS), and 1Lt Jon Marc King (615TFS) along with 39 other passengers were killed when the “airplane struck a 2,700 feet (820 m) ridge in a jungle during its flight from Phan Rang to the Cam Ranh airport[85] The five-member crew and 27 of the passengers were American servicemen, and the other 12 passengers were South Vietnamese.”(1)

 

” Eighteen Air Force members were initially reported missing. Two members were rescued from the wreckage and returned to military control on 5 December 70. When rescue efforts were resumed, the remains of five members were recovered and evidence of death was received on 12 December 70. On re-entry into the crash site, the remains of the other eleven members were recovered and evidence of death was received on 17 December.”(2)

Source: (1) Wikipedia; (2) TogetherWeServed.org

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