Operation Babylift ended with a C-5 carrying hundreds of Vietnamese babies and toddlers, children of American servicemen, making an emergency landing in a meadow alongside the Saigon River. The pilot did a great job - only a few dozen children and a dozen or so military and DOD civilians were killed.

The cause of the disaster was officially attributed to a well-known structural flaw with the engine mounts on the C-5, and it was convenient for the Air Force to put the blame on that, since the AF wanted the planes fixed anyway. In reality, it was a combination of two factors. The density altitude given to the crew was a few hundred feet too low, and the plane's actual weight was heavier than the crew used in the Weights and Balances calculations, which is why the crew had to increase power beyond the aircraft's capability, causing structural damage to the wings, in order to take off. (They couldn't just abort the takeoff, the end of the runway was coming up pretty quickly.)

With these C-17's as overloaded with people as they are, it's another disaster just waiting to happen.

Onward and upward,
airforce