Pham Quang Khiem

Pham Quang Khiem in front of the C-123K after the crash landing

On January 24, 1971, Pham Quang Khiem nearly died almost ending his flight career before it started.[2] After a year of training in the states, Khiem was sent to Phan-Rang AFB by the VNAF to start "In Country Training" with the USAF on a C-123K. Khiem was assigned to fly with 1LT. Minh and their American Instructor, Cpt. John Mastronardi. Minh was the Aircraft Commander in the left seat and in the right, Khiem switched with Captain Mastronardi to execute co-pilot duties. One day, they had an assignment to transfer 48 M107 175 mm bullet heads from Bien-Hoa Air Base to a US FSB 113 kilometers north near the Cambodian border. They had to land into an isolated area for a safe distance from any airport facilities since they carried high explosive material. They landed on the short dirt strip, Bù Gia Mập Air Strip (aka Djamap). The runway was 3000' on top of a 1620' hill. Co-Pilots (in this training) weren't allowed to make any landing on any runway shorter than 3600'. Minh was supposed to handle this flight, but Captain Mastronardi kept Khiem in the right seat believing he could handle the landing after previous successful landings. Khiem was a young pilot and didn't know the difference between a short runway and a long one. It was a hostile area so they had to come in high and drop fast. They came down to 2000' at 78 knots and when the C-123K was about 20 feet in the air crossing the end of the runway Khiem decided to cut the power to idle causing the aircraft to drop touching down extremely hard. The left main landing gear fell into the belly wrecking the wheel and scratched all the red dirt on the runway skyrocketing into the cockpit. Khiem and Minh were blinded. Captain Mastronardi immediately reversed the right engine, bringing the aircraft back stopping the aircraft. If Captain Mastronardi had not stop the plane, the whole aircraft may have run off the dirt strip dropping hundreds of yards exploding down the hill.

North Vietnamese Gains in the last week of March of '75

[3] In the north of South Vietnam, the only remaining government enclave was Da Nang.[4] Khiem flew three missions into and out of Pleiku, evacuating the families of VNAF personnel. The people of Pleiku learned of the evacuation and stormed the airport forcing five C-130's en route from Saigon to turn around before their airlifts were complete. Some C-130's flew bombing missions to destroy the aircraft left behind. They were loaded with 55-gallon drums of napalm, then dropped on VNAF aircraft abandoned on the ramps.

28 March 1975, Khiem flew one of the last missions to Da Nang at 11:00 pm, the night before its loss. When he landed and taxied to the ramp, an ARVN major jumped into the aircraft to get a seat. Khiem knew that the thousands of people would rush the airplane after seeing the major, so Khiem kicked him off. Khiem was a First Lieutenant, and the aircraft commander was searching the terminal for his family. But, the ramp was filled with refugees almost immediately anyway. Around 20,000 pounds of cargo on board, so Khiem yelled at them to offload first. The crowd was too chaotic, so Khiem told the loadmaster to do unloading and loading through the ramp in the back of the C-130. Once finished, people rushed onto the aircraft. Khiem started the engines, scattering many, allowing Khiem to taxi out.

As they taxied, the loadmaster yelled at Khiem through the intercom saying he couldn't close the ramp because people were on it. Khiem hit the brakes jamming the refugees in tight allowing the ramp to close. At the end of the runway, an MP (Military Police) in a truck had his family in it, blocking the taxiway and pointing his M-16 at the cockpit. He motioned to let his family on board. Khiem motioned him to move the truck so he could line up on the runway. Khiem backed up, lined up and took off without the MP. Khiem offloaded at Tan Son Nhut and did a headcount of 350 people. C-130's are maximized to carry 128 passengers but Khiem fit almost three times that amount.

[5] That mission was the turning point for Khiem. He knew if the chaos reaches Saigon he had to get his family out of Vietnam for good.

31 March 1975, Khiem flew several missions in the evacuation of Nha Trang. The following day, Qui Nhơn, South Vietnam's third-largest city was captured by the North Vietnamese. The next target for the North Vietnamese was Nha Trang. Khiem just made it just like he did in Da Nang.

One of Khiem's close friends was Major Nguyen Canh in the South Vietnam Air Force and he was in Khiem's sister squadron the 437th Squadron. They discussed the escape and Khiem told him they must be the first otherwise there wouldn't be a second. Major Canh's family was in Da Lat, and he wanted to get them to Saigon before leaving. On 2 April, Da Lat was overrun by the communists and Nguyen lost contact with them. After that, he was prepared to escape. On 3 April, all the C-130s were used on bombing missions and Khiem was number one standby for the mission planning board, but Khiem needed to tell his family his plan to escape. Khiem told an officer he didn't feel good and agreed to drop Khiem to the bottom of the list. Khiem ran home and told one of his brothers to keep his family close to home because they were all gathered in Saigon. Khiem told his family to rush to the Long Thanh Airport as soon as they heard from him. Long Thanh was originally a US Army airbase that Khiem had landed many times in training. It was closed and deserted since the US withdrawal in 1973.

27-year-old Pham Quang Khiem in C-130A: 1974

Khiem's house was in a mile of the airport and ran home and told his family to leave. But there was a hindrance, Khiem and Nguyen were in different squadrons, and would not usually fly together. Khiem could not even get in the squadron area because the guards did not know him. But the airplane Khiem was supposed to escape with had mechanical problems, and the 437th had to borrow the 435th's C-130a HCF 460, nickname "Saigon Lady", and would let Khiem in the area. Now Khiem had to get rid of Canh's co-pilot. The co-pilot let Khiem fly gladly cause he wanted the rest of the day off to prepare for his date.

Now the biggest problem left of all: the fuel. Khiem thought they would only have enough fuel to maybe make it to Thailand. Khiem checked the fuel to find out the entire tank was full. The man fueling the tank took a smoke break and filled the tank all the way. This full tank of gas meant Singapore was possible.

Lt. Khiem, Major Canh, and the rest of the crew (not knowing where they were going) were prepared for takeoff. Khiem took off without clearance and turned southeast instead of east. Khiem told the crew on the intercom that they were redirected to Long Thanh instead of Phan Rang. They landed safely then the loadmaster opened the ramp unloading 20,000 lbs of dry-rice. Khiem's brother in Phan Rang made it to their parent's house in Saigon a few minutes before the escape. While Khiem's family and friends of 53 people boarded, he told the crew that he was escaping Vietnam and they could come if they wanted. The Flight Engineer got up then sat back down and said he would come. The number one loadmaster thought Khiem and Canh were defecting to the North Vietnamese. He served in the VNAF for ten years and ran away as fast as he could. The other loadmaster was on his first C-130 training ride and had no clue as to what was going on, so he just stood next to the open ramp.

[6] Khiem started taxiing away but when everyone boarded the plane with their luggage, Khiem's two-year-old daughter was trampled and knocked out with blood everywhere. Khiem's wife, Ngoc-My, saw her thinking she was dead and passed out dropping their infant child on the ground. The infant child was left on the tarmac as Khiem started to taxi but, luckily, Khiem's oldest brother's wife ran out and grabbed the infant and ran back into the moving C-130A (all of them recovered after). As Khiem started taxiing to the takeoff end of the runway, Khiem saw the loadmaster speaking to many ARVN soldiers who came in a jeep. As Khiem and Canh turned to take off, the Jeep came and pointed an M-79 grenade launcher at the cockpit. Khiem took off anyways knowing they wouldn't fire. The ramp was still open, so Khiem ran back and told the puzzled, inexperienced loadmaster to hold the switch until the ramp was up, then Khiem ran to the cockpit just in time to raise the gear. The period from Khiem landing to Khiem and the passengers leaving was only seven minutes.

Khiem and Canh flew at tree-top level until they reached the sea then they dropped down to the sea-level. It got very humid in the back resulting in a thick fog forming. Khiem's family and friends could not see each other because the fog was too thick. One hour later, they raised to 16,000 feet and flew straight to Singapore.

One of the C-130A's Khiem flew in the VNAF

[7] They arrived in Singapore at around 7:00 PM. Khiem called Approach Control for instructions but could not understand them, so he changed to Tower Frequency, and requested landing instruction. Yet, the call was intercepted by the Singapore Air Force. Khiem told the other end of the line that the C-130A was off course and running out of fuel. So, they allowed Khiem to land on runway 02. They all stayed put until the authorities came.

The officials had no clue what to do with them. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was out of the country for another two weeks. The Singapore Air Defense Command (SADC) was just renamed and reconstructed into the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) on 1 April 1975, just two days before Khiem arrived.

Khiem proposed for them to leave Singapore and go to Australia so Singapore wouldn't have to deal with them.[8] They agreed, but only if they would pay for gas. They only accepted U.S. currency and all the passengers had a combined total of around $100–400. Khiem tried to bribe with jewelry but they would not accept. The group was moved in separate prison trucks to a detention center outside Singapore. Khiem and the others were released until the Fall of Saigon.

After spending three weeks in the jail, they were all flown to Saipan in a deluxe hotel. After a week there, they finally learned that the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) had fallen to the northern communists.

Khiem and his family ended up at Camp Pendleton, California, where they were processed into the US. Finally, Khiem, Canh, and the others were free at last.

On January 30, 1991, Khiem was flying a Boeing 737 from Raleigh NC to Washington National Airport. Khiem was approaching the runway but the plane taking off that runway aborted forcing Khiem to land on runway 33 (a shorter runway). Khiem realigned to runway 33 and prepared for landing. Runway 33 was even shorter because the Potomac River on one end and The Pentagon on the other. Khiem held a steady speed and tried to touch down on the runway at 500 feet instead of 1000 feet. Khiem dropped 5 knots slamming the nose and wheels on the runway with 87 passengers on board.