[Featured image: The rigid airsip USS Akron on her maiden voyage in 1931. (U.S. Naval Historical Center photo)]
1933: During a storm off the coast of New Jersey, the Navy’s massive helium-filled airship USS Akron crashes into the ocean. 73 of the flying aircraft carrier’s 76 crew members and passengers perish, mostly due to drowning and hypothermia. During the rescue operation the blimp J-3 goes down, killing two more sailors. As a result of the deadliest airship disaster in history, life preservers and life rafts are installed on the Navy’s remaining airships.
Among the lost is airship advocate Rear Adm. William A. Moffett, who earned the Medal of Honor during the Veracruz Campaign before becoming the Navy’s first Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. One of the three survivors is executive officer Lt. Cmdr. Herbert V. Wiley, who will go on to command Akron‘s sister ship USS Macon, which will crash in 1935, ending the Navy’s rigid airship program.
On this day in 1942: a non-rigid airship delivers supplies to USS Hornet (CV-8) as she heads for a surprise attack on Japan. Seen in this photo are the planes that will be flown during the Dolittle Raids, to be launched later in the month.
1975: During the first flight of Operation BABYLIFT, an Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport loaded with orphans from Saigon hospital experiences an explosive decompression and attempts an emergency landing at nearby Tan Son Nhat Airport. Captains Dennis W. Traynor, III and Tilford W. Harp fight to keep the plane airborne with only one aileron and the thrust of the engines. The C-5 crash-lands in a rice paddy short of the runway, killing 138 passengers.
Helicopters are unable to land in the soggy rice fields, and the crew has to carry survivors to rescue teams. 1st Lt. Regina C. Aune ignores a broken foot, leg, and back and carries some 80 babies to safety before finally collapsing. For her selfless efforts the Air Force makes Aune the first recipient of the Cheney Award, which is presented “for an act of valor, extreme fortitude or self-sacrifice in a humanitarian interest.”
An Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport
Pilots Traynor and Harp are awarded the Air Force Cross for what the commanding officer of Military Airlift Command calls “one of the greatest displays of airmanship I have ever heard related.”
Over the next few months, Operations BABYLIFT and NEW LIFE evacuate over 100,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees to Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, and then on to freedom in the United States.
