[schi]

... on April the 4th at the military base in the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon a Strange cargo is being loaded onto an enormous c5a Galaxy ... this is 1 of the largest planes in the world ... the c5a primarily a cargo plane ... its hold is wide enough to carry tanks & tall enough to move buses .... above the cargo area there's a small # of seats ... both the passenger area + the cargo bay are being pressed into service today ... dozens of Vietnamese orphans are being loaded onto the plane to be flown to safety ... there are thousands of orphans to be flown out before the North Vietnamese take Saigon ... Barb Adams works for the American Embassy & her daughter Linda are also fleeing ... they're going to be escorting the orphans on an orphans airlift back to the U.S. ... Sergeant Ray Snedigar is in charge of loading the plane's massive cargo bay ... Captain Bud Traynor is in charge of babylift's 1st flight ... the youngest of the 145 children have been crammed into the upper passenger section of the jet ... there are 102 older children in the cargo area below ... a # of adults from the American Embassy are also down here keeping an eye on the orphans ... getting out of Vietnam starts by leaving the safety of the U.S. base ... then shortly after takeoff as the plane climbs through 23,000 feet the rapid decompression occurs then the plane filled with the mist ... and there was the loud explosion one & quick bang ... debris started flying around ... classic decompression somewhere there's massive hole in the plane's fuselage ... the air inside the jet is rushing out ... at 23,000 feet there's barely enough oxygen to breath ... at the back of the passenger compartment Lieutenant Marshall Wertz checks in with the crew from there she can usually see down to the cargo bay below her pilot ... the cargo door is gone ... at the back of the plane Ray Snedigar saw the huge gaping hole & then he spots what could be an even more serious problem had like fluid popping out ... control cables were dangling in breeze flocking back & forth ... hydraulic fluid helps the crew move the massive control surfaces on the plane the rudder & the elevator at the back & the ailerons & flaps on the wings ... the airplane is coming apart ... all kinds of debris is flying through the air ... Traynor & the rest of the cockpit crew have survived ... Lieutenant Wertz & many others who had been in the passenger section survive ... almost everyone in the cargo was killed instantly the plane slammed down the second time ... the Deads the injured & survivors are taken to hospitals in Saigon & Thailand ... 175 people survived the crash of the Air Force jet but more than 150 have been killed ... more than half of them were children ... the investigation begins immediately ... they have found their answers & in their final report make specific recommendations that will make the c5a safer!