A Lockheed Constellation L-1049, similar to the aircraft that disappeared. [Credit: Ruth As]
Key Takeaways:
On March 15, 1962, Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a MATS charter carrying 93 U.S. Army soldiers on a secret mission to Vietnam, mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean with all 107 people on board.
Despite one of the most extensive searches in aviation history and witness accounts of an "intensely luminous" mid-air explosion, no trace of the aircraft or its occupants was ever found, making it the biggest aviation mystery of the Vietnam War era.
Families of those lost are actively campaigning for their loved ones' names to be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., as their service and sacrifice currently remain unrecognized by the national monument.
Sixty years ago, as the U.S. was becoming more involved in the opening salvo of the Vietnam War, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation was making its way west.
The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) charter flight was operating under Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, and was headed to Saigon, leapfrogging across the South Pacific by way of Honolulu, Wake Island, and Guam.
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