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 U.S. soldiers and three South Vietnamese 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 U.S. 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. This was the deadliest aviation accident involving the Lockheed Constellation. Flight The aircraft was a 5-year-old Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation with 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 Ranger-trained Army communications specialists 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 seven men. The pilot was Captain Gregory P. Thomas. The flight departed Travis Air Force Base, California, at 05:45 GMT, on March 14, 1962, 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, on March 15, 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' worth of fuel for the eight-hour flight of . Eighty minutes after