Vietnam Civil Aviation Flight 509
Douglas C-47A · Hijacking
From Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) to Phú Quốc International Airport (PQC)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 38
- Survivors
- 34
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Douglas C-47A
- Aircraft type
- Douglas C-47
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- VN-C509
- Operator
- Vietnam Civil Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)To Phú Quốc International Airport (PQC)
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
On 29 October 1977, four armed Vietnamese hijackers seeking asylum in Singapore seized a Douglas DC-3, registration VN-C509, en route from Ho Chi Minh City to Phu Quoc Island with 32 passengers on board. The hijackers killed two of the six crew members and wounded a third before the aircraft was forced to land in Singapore. The pilot diverted to U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand for refueling. The flight continued to Singapore where it landed at 21:00 (GMT+07:30) at Seletar Air Base. The hijackers surrendered after negotiating with Singapore officials for five hours. Two days later, Vietnam sent an aircraft to Singapore to bring the DC-3, its crew, and the passengers back to the country.
This hijacking marks the first aircraft hijacking on a Vietnam Airlines's aircraft, and also the first aircraft hijacking after the Fall of Saigon in 1975. The aircraft involved in the incident is currently on display near the warehouse at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, next to a Vietnam Airlines's Tupolev Tu-134 with registration number VN-A132.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Vietnam Civil Aviation Flight 509” (revision 1368235451, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Vietnam Civil Aviation Flight 509
- Revision
- 1368235451 · 2026-08-07 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q133752757
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Vietnam Civil Aviation Flight 509" (page 79482957, revision 1368235451)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.
- The Wikipedia infobox's counts don't add up (2 fatalities and 34 survivors of 38 aboard); they are shown as the article gives them.