C-123 Crash

I was a 123 co-pilot at Phan Rang in the 310th from Sep 70 to May 71. My memories of the crash are very clear. All of the people I knew had been told the pilot (he lived in our hooch) was going to fly about 100 feet of the ground down the runway after an early morning spray mission and when he got to the end of the runway he planned to light up the auxiliary jets and do a chandel. The manuever pulls the nose of the plane up and the pilot banks steeply to reverse direction180 degrees. The plane was never rolled intentionally. The pilot did not realize that the half full spray tank (all the malathion was not used on the mission) would pull the center of gravity so far to the rear of the plane that recovery would be impossible once the angle of climb exceeded about 45 degrees. With so much wet weight close to the tail the plane rolled to its right and literally fell on the copilot. Pilot error was certainly the cause. All 7 crew members were killed instantly and the east side of the base smelled of malathion for a long time. The pilot was a general or a full colonel's son and was dating a very good looking doughnut dolly. After the wreckage was cleared I was assigned to fly the bodies in green bags to Cam Rhan for transport to the states. It was my worst flight in VietNam. After that finny flights were pretty much prohibited. When a crewmember finished his last flight the loadmaster or FE was allowed to open the top hatch of the 123 and hold the American flag up while the the plane taxied in. Except for this one incident I have great memories of my time at Phan Rang. I wouldn't trade the experiences I had there for anything