Pan Am Flight 841

Pan Am Flight 841

Boeing 747-100, similar to the one hijacked
Hijacking summary
Date 2 July 1972 (1972-07-02)
Summary Hijacking
Site Tan Son Nhut Air Base
Passengers 136
Crew 17
Fatalities 1 (hijacker)
Survivors 152
Aircraft type Boeing 747
Operator Pan American World Airways
Flight origin San Francisco International Airport
Destination Tan Son Nhut Air Base

Pan Am Flight 841 was a commercial passenger flight of a Boeing 747 from San Francisco, California to Saigon, South Vietnam which was hijacked over the South China Sea on 2 July 1972, ostensibly as an act of protest concerning US involvement in the Vietnam War as well as the expulsion from the United States of the South Vietnamese hijacker, a recent graduate of a US university. The hijacking ended when the captain and passengers overcame and killed the lone hijacker after the plane landed in Saigon.

Flight

PA841 was a scheduled Pan Am commercial passenger flight, on a Boeing 747, which departed from San Francisco on 2 July 1972 destined for Saigon with stops at Honolulu, Guam and Manila.[1][2][3]

About 45 minutes after the plane departed Manila with 153 passengers and crew aboard for the final leg of its trip to Saigon, a 24-year-old South Vietnamese native, Nguyen Thai Binh, passed a note to a flight attendant that stated in English, "You are going to fly me to Hanoi and this airplane will be destroyed when we get there." Binh, who claimed to be North Vietnamese, also took another flight attendant hostage. The note was conveyed to the flight's 53-year-old captain, Eugene Vaughn. Binh had graduated from the University of Washington on 10 June 1972 with a bachelor's degree in fisheries management after attending from 1968 to 1971 on a USAID scholarship. An activist opposed to US actions during the Vietnam War, Binh had been arrested for occupying the South Vietnamese consulate in New York; his visa was revoked on 7 June and he was expelled from the US. Binh, who boarded the flight in Honolulu, ostensibly decided to hijack his flight home as an "act of revenge".[1]

When Captain Vaughn refused to reroute the flight from Saigon to Hanoi, Binh wrote a second note spattered with his own blood. The second note read "This indicates how serious I am about being taken to Hanoi." Vaughn confronted Binh in the cabin and observed a foil-wrapped package that Binh said contained a bomb. Binh was also armed with a long knife. Vaughn also spoke with another passenger on the flight whom he knew to be a retired Richmond, California police officer, advising him that he might require his assistance to overcome the hijacker and returning the officer's gun that had been stored in the cockpit for safekeeping during the flight.[2]

Vaughn landed at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Air Base under the pretext of needing to refuel the aircraft. After landing, Vaughn walked back to the cabin to speak with the hijacker again. Binh, highly agitated, threatened to detonate his bomb unless the aircraft immediately departed for Hanoi. Claiming to have trouble understanding Binh's speech, Vaughn encouraged Binh to lean closer. When he did so, Vaughn restrained Binh in a choke hold and he and two passengers knocked the package from Binh's hand and pinned him to the floor. Vaughn signalled the retired police officer, who shot Binh five times, killing him. Vaughn then carried Binh's body to the rear exit of the aircraft and threw it onto the tarmac. The 135 surviving passengers and 17 crew members evacuated the aircraft. The only reported injury other than the death of the hijacker was that of a US Air Force lieutenant colonel, a passenger on the flight, who broke his leg exiting via the inflated evacuation chute.[2] The plane took off hours later for Hong Kong to have its evacuation gear repaired.

Aftermath

Vaughn reported that he had guessed (correctly) that Binh was bluffing. The foil-wrapped package actually contained lemons.[4] The retired police officer who killed the hijacker was never publicly identified.

Many US anti-war protesters claimed to view Binh as a martyr for their cause,[5] and shortly after the incident a break-in occurred at Vaughn's home in Scottsdale, Arizona, with "animal intestines, paint and broken bottles" thrown into his swimming pool.[6] The vandal or vandals also left a note, apparently written in animal blood: "Pig Eugene Vaughn guilty of murder. To be punished later. Long live Nguyen Thai Binh. Victory to the Vietnamese. Death to the American aggressor."[7] However, Vaughn was also lauded as a hero who acted to save his passengers, craft and crew, and his actions were described as an expression of frustration with the many hijackings that occurred during the period. Vaughn was quoted as saying, at an event to honor him at the Phoenix airport on his return to the United States, "A lot of time and effort has been spent on trying to prevent hijackings, but the only thing that will be effective is a mandatory death penalty, without any loopholes."[6][1][3] Vaughn retired from Pan Am in 1979 after 38 years with the airline, and died of cancer in 1984; both of his sons became airline pilots.[8]

Binh's friends in the US established a collection in 1974 at the University of Washington library, containing papers about Binh's life and protest activities.[9] Among those involved in establishing the collection were noted clergyman and peace activist William Sloane Coffin and academic and author Bruce E. Johansen.[9] A street is named for Binh in present-day Ho Chi Minh City, honoring him as a hero of the 1970s anti-colonial movement in Vietnam.[10]

1975 evacuation of Saigon

On 24 April 1975, after the formal withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam in June 1973, Clipper Unity N653PA, a Boeing 747-121 aircraft then operating as Pan Am Flight 841[11] and commanded by Captain Bob Berg, was among those involved in the evacuation of Saigon just before the closure of that city's airport to western carriers. It ultimately became a US Air Force mercy flight, redesignated as Special Air Mission 1965/31 Evacuation Charter MNL/SGN/MNL.[12] A fictionalized account of the evacuation flight was presented in the 1990 TV movie Last Flight Out starring Richard Crenna, James Earl Jones and Barry Corbin. The designation PA841 was subsequently retired.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Brendan Koerner (18 June 2013). "Nguyen Thai Binh picked the wrong plane to hijack.". Slate Magazine.
  2. 1 2 3 "Air Pirate Slain on Jet in Saigon". Sarasota Herald Tribune. Associated Press. 3 July 1972. p. 1A, 8A.
  3. 1 2 Brendan L. Koerner. The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking (2013 ed.). Crown Publishers. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-307-88610-1. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Pilot Tells of Foiling Viet Hijack". Chicago Tribune. 3 July 1972. p. 3. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyRI_F84V-o tfs sinh vien Nguyen Thai Binh nguyen hoang ps (Vietnamese)
  6. 1 2 "Pilot urges death penalty to curb hijackings". The Bulletin (Bend, OR). UPI. 7 July 1972.
  7. ↑ "Death Threat". Kansas City Times. Associated Press. 6 July 1972. p. 10A.
  8. ↑ Vaughn Elliott, Janet (2005). "Pan Am Hijacking in 1972". On the Wings of Giants (Pan Am Documentary Project). Io Communications. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  9. 1 2 Guide to the Binh Memorial Committee Records, University of Washington Libraries
  10. ↑ "Nguyen Thai Binh street, Ho Chi Minh City". Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  11. ↑ http://www.airfleets.net/flightlog/index.php?file=result&app=b747&msn=20348
  12. ↑ Val Lester (1995). "Last Flight From Saigon". Clipper Crew. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
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