at DA NANG
DC-8 Takeoff in 2800' SEABOARD WORLD AIRLINES
MARBLE MOUNTAIN....VIET NAM 1969 (from an Army friend)
Those of us in country in 1969 will remember this incident well. This
DC-8 charter was cleared to land at DaNang International at night. The
crew mis-identified Marble Mountain Army airfield as DaNang which is way too short for large aircraft. Getting that loaded slug down and stopped at nite must have made that pilots seat cushion disppear forever!! All recommendations were to disassemble the aircraft and ship it home but as you see this behemoth got off the ground in 2800 feet with very little fuel aboard and landed at DaNang International a few scant miles away.
This from a guy that worked at Trans International Airlines. This
event is pretty well know history among the "Non Sked" flight crews
flying the MAC charters in and out of Viet Nam but I had no idea it
had been filmed. What's interesting is, once Seaboard World Flight
Operations got the word on what happened, they contacted Douglas Aircraft Corp for advice...Douglas said "take it apart and ship it home". FAA said the same thing..........you can see from this footage how the flight crew handled the matter.
Enjoy a little history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bvK6enoQDg
View attachment 33226
DC-8 Takeoff in 2800' SEABOARD WORLD AIRLINES
MARBLE MOUNTAIN....VIET NAM 1969 (from an Army friend)
Those of us in country in 1969 will remember this incident well. This
DC-8 charter was cleared to land at DaNang International at night. The
crew mis-identified Marble Mountain Army airfield as DaNang which is way too short for large aircraft. Getting that loaded slug down and stopped at nite must have made that pilots seat cushion disppear forever!! All recommendations were to disassemble the aircraft and ship it home but as you see this behemoth got off the ground in 2800 feet with very little fuel aboard and landed at DaNang International a few scant miles away.
This from a guy that worked at Trans International Airlines. This
event is pretty well know history among the "Non Sked" flight crews
flying the MAC charters in and out of Viet Nam but I had no idea it
had been filmed. What's interesting is, once Seaboard World Flight
Operations got the word on what happened, they contacted Douglas Aircraft Corp for advice...Douglas said "take it apart and ship it home". FAA said the same thing..........you can see from this footage how the flight crew handled the matter.
Enjoy a little history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bvK6enoQDg
View attachment 33226