The 1968 Kham Duc C-130 shootdown was the aircraft shootdown of a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Lockheed C-130B Hercules aircraft during the

Battle of Kham Duc The Battle of Kham Duc was a major battle of the Vietnam War. The event occurred in Khâm Đức, now district capital of Khâm Đức District, then in Quảng Tín Province (now part of Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam), from 10–12 May 196 ...

on May 12, 1968. Everyone on board, 183 Vietnamese civilians, one U.S. Special Forces officer, and 5 U.S. Air Force crewmen, were killed. At the time, it was the deadliest aircraft crash in history, is currently the deadliest aviation incident on Vietnamese soil, and remained the deadliest loss of a U.S. military aircraft until

Arrow Air Flight 1285 Arrow Air Flight 1285R was an international charter flight carrying U.S. troops from Cairo, Egypt, to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, via Cologne, West Germany, and Gander, Newfoundland. On the morning of Thursday, 12 December 1985 ...

in 1985. The aircraft, commanded by Major Bernard L. Bucher, was participating in the evacuation of

South Vietnamese South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

civilians from the Kham Duc campsite. The C-130 approached the Kham Duc airstrip from the south and managed to land despite taking hits from opposing

North Vietnamese North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

forces. As soon as it landed, 183 South Vietnamese rushed onto the aircraft. Once the aircraft was full, Major Bucher proceeded to take off in a northward direction, unaware that the North Vietnamese were concentrated in that area. According to eyewitness reports, the aircraft, under intense anti-aircraft fire from 12.7mm and 14.5mm heavy machine guns, shook violently out of control, crashed into a nearby ravine less than a mile (1.6 km) from the end of the airstrip, and burned, killing all of the evacuees, the Special Forces officer, and the aircraft's crew of five.Gropman, p. 50Bowers, p. 345

References

1968 in Vietnam Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968 Aviation accidents and incidents in Vietnam 20th-century aircraft shootdown incidents Accidents and incidents involving United States Air Force aircraft May 1968 events in Asia Accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed C-130 Hercules {{aviation-accident-stub