A Lockheed Constellation L-1049, similar to the aircraft that disappeared. [Credit: Ruth As]
Key Takeaways:
Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, carrying 107 people (mostly U.S. Army soldiers on a secret mission to Vietnam), mysteriously vanished over the Pacific Ocean on March 15, 1962, during the early stages of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Despite an extensive search and witness accounts of a possible mid-air explosion, no trace of the aircraft or its passengers was ever found, making it one of the biggest aviation mysteries from that era.
The soldiers lost on Flight 739 are not recognized on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., leading their families to actively lobby for their inclusion, with a monument in Maine currently serving as their only memorial.
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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