| Date: 10 February 1971 |
| Aircraft type: UC-123K Provider |
| Serial Number: 56-4373 |
| Military Unit: 310 TAS, 315 TAW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Phan Rang detached to Tan Son Nhut |
| Name(s): |
| 1Lt Charles Milton Deas (KWF) |
| 1Lt Richard William O’Keefe (KWF) |
| Lt Col Daniel Harrison Tate (KWF) |
| MSgt Donald Louis Dunn (KWF) |
| TSgt Clyde Wendell Hanson (KWF) |
| The Ranch Hand defoliation programme was drawing to a close and the last herbicide mission had been flown in South Vietnam on 7 January. The 12th ACS had been inactivated on 31 July 1970 and the Ranch Hand crews had been posted to A Flight of the 310th TAS. On 28 January the six Providers and the crews of A Flight were absorbed into the rest of the Squadron to take up conventional transport duties. However two aircraft were retained for insecticide spraying in an attempt to combat the malaria-carrying mosquitoes that thrived in the swampy regions of South Vietnam. On 10 February one of the two insecticide sprayers crashed at Phan Rang killing all five crew on board. The flight was 1Lt Deas’s last mission before returning to the USA and he had asked several squadron members to take photographs of his aircraft as he made low passes over the airfield. No evidence of damage from enemy action was found and the crash was determined to have been caused by pilot error. Insecticide spraying continued for another year until the last Ranch Hand aircraft left Vietnam in February 1972. |
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