By Daily Mail
A heroic Vietnamese helicopter pilot saved his family – and cheated death – by hurling his wife children onto a fleeing U.S. warship during the Fall of Saigon, then leaping into the sea as the aircraft plunged into the waters behind him.
Explosion: The helicopter blew up dramatically as the pilot banked it into the sea as he leaped out after jettisoning his family.
New footage has emerged showing his daring escape as the U.S.military withdrew from Vietnam in the face of advancing communist forces.
The pilot was one of several Vietnamese helicopter pilots who piled in during the United States’ evacuation of all its personnel in Vietnam in April 1970.
Their story – and new photographs and footage of their dramatic escape – have been unearthed and turned into a forthcoming documentary for ABC.
While U.S. servicemen flew Americans, and hundreds of Vietnamese, between the embassy in Saigon and ships waiting off the coast of Vietnam, some South Vietnamese took matters into their own hands.
Armed only with their scarcely-fueled small helicopters, many pilots tailed the U.S. helicopters back to the waiting USS Kirk, and were allowed to land on board with their families and cram onto the ship.
Joining in with the huge evacuation – dubbed Operation Frequent Wind – was their only hope of escaping torture and death at the hands of North Vietnam.
In now-iconic images, the useless choppers were then pushed overboard to make room for more evacuees.
Read the full story HERE.
