Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 was a Lockheed L - 1049 Super Constellation propliner chartered by the United States military that disappeared on March 16 , 1962 over the Western Pacific Ocean . The aircraft was transporting 93 Army men and 3 South Vietnam ese from Travis Air Force Base , California to Saigon , Vietnam . After refueling at Andersen Air Force Base , Guam , the Super Constellation was en route to Clark Air Base in the Philippines when it disappeared . All 107 aboard were declared missing and presumed dead . The airliner ' s disappearance prompted one of the largest air and sea searches in the history of the Pacific . Aircraft and surface ships from four branches of the US military searched more than during the course of eight days . A civilian tanker observed what appeared to be an in - flight explosion believed to be the missing Super Constellation , though no trace of wreckage or debris was ever recovered . The Civil Aeronautics Board determined that , based on the tanker ' s observations , Flight 739 probably exploded in - flight , though an exact cause could not be determined without examining the remnants of the aircraft . To date , this remains the worst aviation accident involving the Lockheed Constellation series . Flight . The aircraft was a 5 - year - old Lockheed L - 1049 H Super Constellation with a total of 17 , 224 airframe hours . It carried 11 American civilian crew members and 96 military passengers . The flight was operated by the Flying Tiger Line as Military Air Transport Service ( MATS ) Charter flight 739 . The Super Constellation carried 93 jungle - trained Army Rangers en route to South Vietnam . Their orders were to relieve soldiers in Saigon who had been training Vietnamese troops to fight Viet Cong guerrillas . Also on board were three members of the Vietnamese military . The flight crew consisted of eleven civilians based out of California , including four women . The pilot was Captain Gregory P . Thomas . The flight originated from Travis Air Force Base , California , and was destined for Saigon . There were four planned refueling stops : Honolulu , Hawaii ; Wake Island ; Guam ; and Clark Air Base , Philippines . The flight arrived at Guam at 11 : 14 GMT after being delayed for minor maintenance on engines numbers 1 and 3 at Honolulu , and later at Wake Island . The aircraft departed from Guam at 12 : 57 GMT with an estimated time of arrival at the Philippines at 19 : 16 GMT . The Super Constellation carried nine hours of fuel for the , 8 - hour flight . Eighty minutes after departure , at 14 : 22 GMT , the pilot radioed a routine message and gave his position as being 280 miles west of Guam at coordinates ( ) . The aircraft was expected to reach at 15 : 30 . At that time , the Guam IFSS experienced temporary communication difficulties with heavy radio static . At 15 : 39 the Guam radio operator attempted to contact the flight for a position report but was unable to establish contact . The aircraft was not seen or heard from again . Investigation . The Clark Field Rescue Coordinating Center declared the aircraft missing the morning of 16 March 1962 , 24 hours after the final radio message was received . Navy officials reported that they believed that the aircraft had crashed closer to Guam than the Philippines . At the time of the disappearance , the weather was clear and the sea calm . The Navy , Air Force , Coast Guard , and Marines ordered aircraft and ships to the area . The first day of searching continued overnight . During the first two days of the search , vessels crisscrossed of ocean . Secretary of the Army Elvis Stahr told newspapers that " [ w ] e have not given up hope that it will be found and that those aboard are safe , " and that a " maximum effort " was being made . After four days of searching , Major General Theodore R . Milton of the 13th Air Force told newspapers that although the chance of finding survivors was doubtful , every effort would be made " as long as there is any hope at all . " Search efforts included aircraft from Guam , Clark Field , the US 7th Fleet , and the Air Force at Okinawa . Additionally surface ships and aircraft from numerous U . S . bases in the western Pacific contributed to the search efforts . After eight days , the search was called off . The search , which was , at the time , one of the largest to ever take place in the Pacific , had covered more than of ocean . Conspiracy theories . Two Flying Tiger Line aircraft carrying military aid to South Vietnam were destroyed under similar circumstances on the same day , leading to " wild guesses " of sabotage and conspiracy by both airline officials and the media . Both Flight 739 and another L - 1049 Super Constellation departed from Travis Air Force Base at around 9 : 45 PST on Wednesday 14 March 1962 to Saigon on behalf of the Department of Defense , and both encountered difficulties several hours later . The other aircraft was carrying " secret military cargo " when it crashed in the Aleutian Islands and caught fire . Flying Tiger Lines released a statement outlining some possible reasons for the two occurrences , including sabotage of either or both aircraft , and kidnapping of Flight 739 and its passengers . The airline also said that these were merely " wild guesses " and that there was no evidence to support either theory . Possibility of sabotage . A Liberian tanker , the SS " T L Linzen " , reported seeing a bright light in the sky near the aircraft ' s expected position about 90 minutes after the last radio contact . US military officials described it as being a “ bright light strong enough to light ” a ship ’ s decks . The " Spokane Daily Chronicle " reported that the tanker observed a flash of light approximately west of Guam , followed immediately by two falling red lights falling to the ocean at different speeds . A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation determined that witnesses aboard the tanker also observed what appeared to be vapor trails , and numerous crew members observed the two fireballs fall into the ocean . The tanker proceeded to the location where the fireballs had been observed to impact the ocean but was unable to find any trace of the falling objects during their six - hour search . A spokesman at the rescue effort headquarters in Guam said that as time passed with no sign of the aircraft , " more credence is given to the possibility that the tanker may have seen the missing aircraft explode in flight . ” Officials with the Flying Tiger Line said that if the investigation reveals that an explosion occurred on board the aircraft , it would support their earlier theories of sabotage . The executive vice president of operation told the Associated Press that experts consider it impossible for explosions to occur on the Super - Constellation in the course of normal operation . Additionally he claimed that there is nothing powerful enough aboard the aircraft to completely blow apart the vessel , and that " something violent must have happened . " The Civil Aeronautics Board determined that , given the observations of the tanker crew , the flight most likely exploded in midair . As no part of the wreckage was ever found , the CAB was unable to make a determination as to a determination of cause . The accident report concluded :