In 1962, Flight 739 disappeared over the Pacific. Grieving families still want answers.
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HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - On March 16, 1962, three years before the US entered the Vietnam War, a transport airliner from the Flying Tiger Line was bound for Saigon.
Between Guam and the Philippines, it suddenly disappeared.
Jennifer Kirk’s uncle, Army soldier Donald Sargent, was on board.
“I think for the families it’s the unknown, not knowing what happened to that plane. What was there mission? Where were they going?” she said.
An ocean tanker reported a mid-air explosion, but a search turned up no wreckage or remains.
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Capt. Gregory Thomas was a 48-year-old pilot with nearly 20,000 flight hours under his belt. Described as “colorful and heroic,” he flew with the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and later safely landed a cargo plane on a beach after all four engines quit. He lived on a 55-foot yacht in Red Bank.
On March 16, 1962, he was at the controls for one of the biggest tragedies and mysteries in U.S. aviation history.
Capt. Gregory Thomas was a 48-year-old pilot with nearly 20,000 flight hours under his belt. Described as “colorful and heroic,” he flew with the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and later safely landed a cargo plane on a beach after all four engines quit. He lived on a 55-foot yacht in Red Bank.
On March 16, 1962, he was at the controls for one of the biggest tragedies and mysteries in U.S. aviation history.
Early that morning Thomas was piloting Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a military-chartered transport plane that disappeared over the Pacific Ocean with 107 people aboard, including 93 American soldiers. They were headed to Vietnam on a mission whose objective remains secret to this day.
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