Banner Courtesy of Ray Komoski, 318th ASA Battalion
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These are eyewitness accounts of the Skyraider crash at Tan Son Nhut Airbase, just outside Davis Station, Oct 1966. If you were there, send your comments to Chui and they will be added here.A special thanks to Walter Chisholm, 175th RR Co., for the article about the crash and to James Callahan for the crash site photo. There was a soccer field down the road from Davis Station. There were hundreds of "Buddhist Boy Scouts" gathered there. They had pitched tents and were there for a couple of days. It was some kind of Jamboree. The Skyraiders were doing tricks right over the field. We could see the planes from Davis Station as they made long passes doing loops and flying upside down. One went in very low and we never saw him come up. A large pillar of smoke shot up and we started running to the crash site. According to some who saw the plane hit, he was upside down at the time, hit the top of a cement guard tower, flipped over and perhaps steered himself away from the field. Luckily he missed that field full of kids. His engine fell off as he bounced off a building, pancaked on another and then landed rightside up into a motorcycle or bicycle repair shop. When we got there the flames were being doused by an Airforce Firefighting chopper. One of those odd looking double rotor jobs. Some of the guys Spec 5 Vann and Spec 5 Focht (I believe) helped grab a couple of survivors from the buildings which were still burning. One guy was badly burned and still smoldering. He was all gray and sitting and rocking back and forth. He moaned and fell over and some of our guys grabbed him and put him on a stretcher. It was a pretty chaotic scene. The M P's got there and started moving people back away from the site. I saw the pilot's leg sticking out of the cockpit. I believe it was a Sunday, since I remember I was laying in a rack just killing time before going to the club.
Tino "Chui" Banuelos
You asked about the Skyraider that crashed at Tan Son Nhut. Yes, I was in the EM club at Davis Station that afternoon. We heard the crash and ran over there, but the Air Police arrived about the same time we did and they wouldn't let us get close. The Vietnamese Boy Scouts were having a "jamboree" or something. President/General Ky, himself a pilot, arranged an airshow for the Scouts. They (Skyraiders) made a low pass and one of them struck a concrete machine gun guard post at an intersection on Tan Son Nhut. The plane bounced, careened and ricocheted across the rooftops of several buildings before finally coming to rest in the barber shop. The others landed hurriedly and came to the crash scene in a car. As I remember, the pilot and maybe 2 or 3 on the ground were killed.
Walter Chisholm I was also at Davis Station at the time. In fact, I had just left the front gate headed for those Ba Moi Ba stands near Camp Alpha when the crash occurred. The planes had already made one or two passes (including barrel rolls) over the Scout encampment. If memory serves, the plane that crashed was making a very low level pass, belly up, when his tail hooked the guard tower roof. I think I still have some pictures of the smoke, etc afterwards, albiet from a distance. Although I had a camera with me, I didn't have any interest in pictures of the planes as they were performing, so I wasn't in position when the crash occurred. I tried to get close to the site, but was unable to. In fact, as I was heading that way, I ran across an Air Force combat controller I knew who had just had his camera confiscated long enough to have the film removed and exposed to the sun by the VNAF police, under orders, he was told, of General Ky. I decided discretion was truely the better part of valor and diverted back to the girls at the Ba Moi Ba stand. I'll see if I can find the pictures -- they were 35mm slides, and I have no idea what condition they are in. I think it occured in September of '66, but I'm not sure. I know it was before November, because that's when I moved up-country.
Dick Henson
Yes, I rememer this event. It was an Air Show being put on for the Boy Scouts. I was headed to the EM/NCO club at Davis Station when all of a sudden we saw a plane coming real low over the buildings and then it disappeared and there was a ball of fire and black smoke. We all ran over to see what had happened. When I got there they were taking the body of the pilot out of the plane. Standing only a few feet from me was Nguyen Cao Key himself, looking quite dapper in his flight suit and brilliant scarf. There was a lot going on, but I really don't remember anything about any of our guys pulling out any injured personnel or anything like that. But that was 32 years ago.
Your Friend and fellow ASA'r
I remember. It was slightly overcast and a few spotty clouds. The air was heavy with moisture. There were two A1E's, I believe and they were doing acrobatics over Tan Son Nut for the scouts. The one plane either lost control or got heavy with moisture on his wings, he did a roll and couldn't come up in time. I understand that he broke off to his left to keep from hitting the scouts and took out a concrete building instead, down by the first aid station. He bounced off of that and started down the row of Ba Mui Ba stands and RVN quarters. He came to rest next to the Ba Mui Ba stands where we used to get chinese soup. There was a Vietnamese and an American in the plane. By the time we got there from Davis, it was too late. The people inside were dead, and it was a bit chaotic. Years ago I had pictures of the smoke and such, but I have no idea where they are now. That was kind of a downer day. To this day when I go to an air show, or watch planes doing rolls and such I cringe at the thought. Ray Hammons |
