What Happened to Flight 739? 

This guy's the spitting image of the bloke on casual criminalist

"this doesn't seem like a conspiracy theory, it seems like logical thought", said every conspiracy theorist ever.

Simon Whistler's channels: when you want to hear an interesting conversation but you only want one person to do the talking 😜

Simon, the Lockheed Super Constellation was powered by four Wright R-3350 turbocharged radial piston engines. High power aircraft piston engines tended to need lots of maintenance, and it was very common for them to need servicing at each stop. One might say, it was quite a feat to complete a trip without one of them having some kind of minor issue. Oh, those engines had 18 cylinders each, and aircraft engines have two spark plugs per cylinder. You suspect one of the plugs is faulty? You change all 36. What did you say, mr. mechanic, your shift is ending? Sorry about that...

Travis AFB has a Falconer and it's cool to watch the falcons fly. That's how they reduce the chance of bird-strikes. Random comment that I thought others might find interesting

My favorite tidbit I've heard about the "Moon landing being fake" conspiracy is: With the technology available in that era it would've been more expensive and difficult to fake the landing than it would be to actually send people to the moon.

A grenade has a large blast radius, pretty much a detonation anywhere on the plane would depressurize the hull. If it is anywhere near the wings it could rupture the fuel tanks quite easily. Grenades should be shipped in a crate, not in the troops kit, but it was waaaayy before my time, so who knows what their SOP was.

Quick question for Simon: with all the channels you have, how many times do you get confused during the intro and say the wrong channel name and have to start again?

1:20 - Chapter 1 - The history 14:00 - Chapter 2 - Theories 16:50 - Chapter 3 - Sabotage 22:30 - Chapter 4 - Kidnap 24:45 - Chapter 5 - Collision with an object 32:30 - Chapter 6 - Conspiracy 34:55 - Chapter 7 - Aftermath

Simon, look into the crash of TWA flight 2. It was also a Lockheed Constellation that collided mid-air with a DC-4 over the Grand Canyon in the mid-50s. Those things did happen, in that era, there was a lot less radar controlled airspace, so no collision avoidance systems. They operated VFR.

Conspiracy theories are fun, but I’d love to see videos on confirmed conspiracies.

Once again Simon's rants and tangents totally make this series.

A word of advice: you can still redact a pdf that was just saved in the free Adobe Reader. You have to print it to another pdf for the editing marks to "lock" and become uneditable. If you just Save the or Save As, anyone who opens that pdf can remove your reactions.

You’ve inadvertently solved the mystery, Simon! It was the piano playing duck! At 10,000 feet, the duck could still breathe; but at 18,000 feet, the duck would have lost pursuit at that altitude. The dock had to strike fast before the plane could get away

25:25 For those interested, the almost collision between two planes in midair that Simon talked about were Japan Airlines flights 907 and 958.

To answer your question about military aircraft, yes you do have to go through a security screening to board military aircraft. Obviously there are exceptions for personnel who are enroute to a mission but those personnel are nevertheless screened, manifested, and under the control of a commanding officer. Since the Rangers on the flight weren't (supposedly) enroute to an actual assault, their weapons and ammunition would most likely have been separately palletized and loaded but we can't rule out the possibility that they were actually about to engage in an active mission and were fully armed. It's not 100% impossible that a grenade could have gotten loose and lost its pin but it's pretty damned unlikely with a group of elite professionals like the Rangers. It's also not impossible that there could have been explosives -- maybe even a lot of explosives -- unrelated to the Rangers' mission onboard and an errant electrical short or the like could have set it off. Loadmasters take precautions to prevent this but it's not entirely impossible. Humorously, it was standard during my time in the Air Force for even troops on a tactical mission to receive the usual briefing on prohibited items even though we were exempted for that trip. We'd collapse into howls of laughter at the list -- daggers, switchblade knives, knives having a blade longer than 3", handguns, rifles, machine guns, explosives, etc. I do recall one occasion upon which my team was on the way to a training exercise and we carried our rifles without live ammunition. Our commander carried a handgun with live ammunition to protect the rifles if anyone tried to steal one. The aircraft commander demanded that our commander turn over his handgun for the duration of the flight. Our commander said, "We are literally the people whose job it is to rescue you if you get hijacked. Do you really want to get into a pissing match over this?" The AC wisely backed down. 😂

Simon , back in their day , they used "observe and avoid" rule , no anticollision warnings (radars). That rule continued even to 1980's , when it became a must to have system that will alert pilots in case they are going to collide with another plane and they can't observe (see) the other plane. For example , "Shershen" patrol boats (torpedo boats) where my grandpa served in 1960's had radars that could cover 900 kilometers , basically intruding nearby countries sea and air space. And this being "civil" aircraft , I highly doubt they had some advanced military tech inside.

Simon you did a Worlds Greatest Terrorist attacks. One was a guy who blew himself up and out of a plane being the only one who died.

Simon, I would put money on it being one of the outboard engines that was worked on at one of the stops. A fuel leak could have caused a fire that could have caused the engine to come off, possibly with the outer section of the wing. This would account for the sighting of two fireballs and be able to bring the craft down. Until wreckage is found, we may never know for sure.

Most likely explanation imo is something similar to TWA800. It took a very thorough investigation 96-00 to determine that fuel vapor was ignited in a tank by a short circuit in wiring. Just as experts said a super connie couldn’t just blow up, many said the same about a 747.

The service ceiling for the Lockheed Super Constellation is 24,000ft, so the altitude change seems unexceptionable. I lightly browsed it's specs and operational history and it doesn't appear to have a design flaw that would cause an explosion like the Avro Tudor VI which had heaters that could cause fires and likely led to the crashes of the Star Tiger and Star Ariel in the late 40's. However, they did have skylights used for sexton navigation that shattered and caused explosive decompression in at least one case in 1948 that sucked out a navigator, but those probably were removed by the 60's. A Super Constellation was involved in a midair collision with a DC-7 (TWA Flight 2 & United Airlines Flight 718) in 1956, which led to changes for better collision avoidance systems. Given that Flight 739 was one of two Flying Tiger Line flights with military connections that were destroyed under similar circumstances on the same day, it seems unlikely that it was just coincidence or accident. However, they were the same plane design and both crashed on the same day over the Pacific (similar conditions?), so it's possible it could be a fault with the planes themselves, as measures like fire detection and suppression in the cabin/cargo areas weren't standard until the 80's and inerting fuel tanks/eliminating sources of sparks from wiring wasn't standardized until the 90's (after the disasters of Air Canada Flight 797, ValuJet Flight 592, and TWA Flight 800, respectively).

there is one angle that wasn't explored in the video, Explosive decompression. the super constellation was a pressurized aircraft. the particular aircraft was delivered to flying tiger lines in 1957. this would have been more than enough time for fatigue cracks to form. a key fact for this accident is that the explosion happened shortly after a considerable ascent. this would have put considerable pressure on an already fatigued airframe, all it would take for the aircraft to explode is for one of those cracks to fail and the aircraft would pop like a balloon.

Security in the 60s was atrocious. My mom once pretended to be blind so she could take her dog on board. Just to see if it would work. It did. Her super-secret disguise? Dark sunglasses. Just. Sunglasses.

There's a lot fewer crashes because they started to put the technicians that do the repairs on it's next flight. It's a great motivator to not make an ID-10-T error.

The Japan Air Near Miss you mentioned could have killed nearly 700 people. There's been some other notable mid air collisions such as Überlingen, Cerritos, and Charkhi Dadri. The Überlingen collision specifically was basically the same scenario as Japan Air, with one crew listening to the collision avoidance system and the other plane listening to air traffic control.

I love videos on mysterious plane crashes and events. I love everything aviation. I dreamed of becoming a pilot since I was 4. At 9 I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It killed my dream but not my passion.

We should also consider the possibility that the members of the flight exited the plane prior to it exploding. Seems feasible given the nature of the trip and that all of their personal identifications were left behind.

I'm always extra excited when I see you upload on this channel or casual Criminalist. 🌸💗🌸 I am working through all of your videos on all of your channels. 🌸💗🌸

My favorite part of the Lockheed Constellation is the complete disregard for manufacturability. The bulkheads are all unique; a normal pressurized airliner is cylindrical, the Constellation is more like a misshapen cigar.

Love the regular drive to survive shoutouts. Such a great series and getting new fans on board for the sport is always a good thing.

We had about 10,000 military "advisers" in Vietnam before the first four combat battalions were sent there following the Gulf Of Tonkin incident.

Simon: "If two giant planes crashed into each other in mid-air, that would be something I would know about." Me: Well obviously you didn't hear about the Überlingen Mid-Air collision in 2002 then, did you? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_%C3%9Cberlingen_mid-air_collision

listening to Simon take left and right turns is just a delight!

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 Vietnam Cong guerrillas. Also on board were three members of the Vietnamese military. They were advisors not super secret soldiers.

Note at 10:55, sadly in the past for auto racing, watching people die on TV, whether or not you realize it, watching people die in TV was more likely. I saw that with Dale Earnhardt Sr.

I live in Arlington tx and our veterans park has a monument honoring Vietnam veterans and our allies from around the world. The wording is in English and Vietnamese.

I'd love to see Simon do a bio on the WASPS

There was also the rudder hard over on earlier Boeings…I think it’s flight 427 that crashed outside of Pittsburgh, plus another crash and then an almost crash. Flight 427 killed the father of a kid in our school(I believe they were 1st grade, I was 4th or 5th grade at the time) It was very shocking at the time, there’s also a memorial at the school. And yeah Simon, when you commented on the two fishermen(sea men) and “They just watched a lot of ppl die.” Like the morning of Sept 11 watching the 2nd plane hit(don’t need to say where and all, but I’ll ALWAYS remember that moment…Like my parents “Kennedy moment.”) Anyways, great channels! I really like the cold reads on here and CC

Well, on the note about a grenade going off on a plane, I'd recommend reading up on Aloha Flight 243. It's a fascinating story and just goes to show how much damage an aircraft can take before it goes down

Dad was on a military plane in the late 60's on the way to Korea to build airfields for planes going to Vietnam. He said that halfway over the Pacific the "ditch" alarm came on and he thought "oh, great, I'm not even 21 and I'm gonna be fish food. Just great." The crew came through the cabin yelling "false alarm! false alarm!" He said everyone was, needless to say, really pissed.

with as many channels as simon has, netflix should give him his own show - let alone sponsor him… lobbying for a #factboi tv series

Eh, I'm not convinced that the plane blew up. Eye witnesses can be notoriously unreliable and a plane with an engine on fire that breaks up due to a powered dive that exceeds its structural integrity would look like an explosion to those that don't know what a plane exploding even looks like.

your cold reads are hands down the most comforting thing i ingest

Hey Simon and his team! Just a bit of information about the troops in the plane. I’m a U.S. Army Infantry veteran and know quite a bit about my Ranger brethren. The Rangers mentioned here are likely just Ranger School graduates as the school had been created about 10 years prior. While holding a Ranger Tab is something to be proud of, it is just a leadership school that is excellent at turning out great leaders in small unit tactics. The Rangers you’re thinking of are the current Special Operation Rangers of the 75th Ranger Regiment. They weren’t around until the 70s, but had history dating back to WWII or earlier depending on who you ask in regard the Roger’s Rangers in the French and Indian War. Seven Years War for you folks across the pond. The point I’m trying to make here is not a huge deal but just for clarity. These soldiers likely had a few Ranger Tabbed soldiers with them but were in general technical specialists from the sounds of it. This is still common even today when operating with or training partner forces. The unit that does this on a mass scale now is the Security Force Assistance Brigade. So in short, while these troops would’ve certainly been damn near impossible to take hostage, they were not elite combat troops like the Rangers of today. Also, you were correct, we had military advisors there as early as ‘59 from stories and reports I’ve heard and read, if memory serves me right.

Is it me or is this channel becoming more business-blazey with every episode

Fire suppression foam / fuel tank baffle foam wasn't added until the 70s. It could have been fuel slosh and spark. Baffles are super important when keeping av gas from exploding

Interesting fact: When training for your CDL (Commercial Driver's License), you are taught to do this huge checklist before pulling out to make sure that your engine, brakes, and lights are in working order. You also need to check your 5th wheel to make sure the trailer is secure. You need to check your hookups, restraints, signs and doors on your trailer. This is supposed to be done every time you stop. However, in reality, most truckers rarely do any of this in order to save time. From the vast amount of stories released after a plane crash, most pilots and crew also take shortcuts to speed up the process. So don't assume things are done properly just because they are supposed to be done properly.

Funny and wonderful as always saimon!!

A half pound bomb would be more than enough to trigger explosions that could disintegrate that aircraft, if the bomb was placed in the proper spot in an engine nacelle or next to any part of the fuel system. Something the size of two packs of cigarettes (including a timer made from an alarm clock) would do the job, in the right spot. The Super Connie was still using a piston engine - which means AvGas (high octane gasoline, AKA petrol) rather than Jet A (which is basically super clean kerosene with some additives, like anti-icing compounds). So super-explodey fuel, compared to a modern airliner.

With regards to the bomb theory, it couldn’t have been C4, as it wasn’t a thing in ‘62. C4 would first see military use in, get this, the Vietnam War. So a bomb would have to be made out of TNT. But you’re right, it doesn’t take much kaboom to destroy an airplane, a stick or two of TNT in say, a gas tank would absolutely work.

Great yarn mate, keep 'em comin'.

Simon. My guy. How many channels and podcast are you a host of? I know of at least eight or nine. I just stumbled across this one. Take a vacation my dude. Excellent work as always through.

The jet trails got written off quickly but that could be an indicator that Constellation was intercepted and shot down. If the Soviet Union got wind of the operation they could have dispatched a MiG, which is much faster than a constellation. The MiG would have caught them off guard and fired two missiles explaining the double explosion.

The Malaysian airplane would be a good topic. Definitely not a happy ending.

"warm my little heart"...touching Simon...touching...

Really enjoying the new channel along with all the others. Read long and prosper.

It was either a malicious act or a coverup. Those men said they doubted they'd come back, right? Sure, you're going somewhere that's highly unstable and unsafe. But unless the wreckage is one day found and it's confirmed these men died there, there's a small chance this could be an orchestrated thing and the men were never in the plane when it blew up. I don't know what would be the reasoning behind it. I have no idea how the US military operates, especially when it comes to secret operations. But considering everything the CIA/military/whoever else have admitted to over the decades - not to mention everything they haven't but have possibly done anyway - it's not that much of a reach.

Literally, the first thing I thought before Katie got to it was that one of those Vietnamese attaches was a spy and planted a bomb, or there was a leak to the NVA or USSR about what the US was planning on doing, and they sent an agent to plant a bomb. Perhaps as far back as Hawaii - but having been to Guam, it's not a stretch to think the agent couldn't infiltrate there either.

great video. Really enjoyed it.

I like how Hercules Poirot-esque music comes in at 37:09 when Simon starts to sum up the episode. So subtle!

I love alien theories! They're hilarious and often surprisingly thought through. A very few are something resembling believable, assuming that the aliens are like antarctic explorers, and those are extra fun. Apropos your flight classes and checking everything, I know a guy who failed his driver's test because the side mirrors fell off the moment he started the car.

I have lawyer friend who said that he was working for a plaintiff and the defendants redacted some PDFs but they were simply just highlighting the text and turning the highlight colour black. So you could simply just highlight the text like you were going to copy-paste and you could see the entire document.

Always interesting, informative and entertaining 👍 team

I figure they climbed to 18,000 to avoid thunderclouds and then ended up getting hit by a lightning bolt. Lightning could also account for the heavy static Guam IFSS reported that interfered with their communications with 739.

To answer the question - the most likely answer they have to the 2014 Malaysian Airlines flight, based on the evidence they found, is that the pilot went a bit mad, planned the whole thing in advance, took the plane into the middle of nowhere and gently crash landed it into the ocean as a murder suicide

Very interesting video. Having no flying or military experience, I'm left to wonder, along with most other people, if we'll ever have an explanation.. I very much doubt it. It's awful that these Army Rangers aren't mentioned anywhere on any memorial!

It could have just exploded like that TWA flight. The plane could have been struck by lightning (first “explosion” sound) which ignited a fuel explosion (second explosion) that destroyed the plane

"Exploded in the air" is a common misperception with plane accidents due to the speed of sound. The sequence would be 1) plane gets into trouble 2) plane crashes 3) a fireball forms (or several, because there are several fuel tanks) 4) seconds go by 5) observers hear the crash 6) observers look into the direction of the sound and only then see the fire and think that it exploded at that time.

Simon: You're like, did I just watch someone die? It's crazy Anyone that witnessed 9/11: ...uuummmmm...

I have personally been through absolutely abysmal airport security in several 3rd world countries, in the last 30 years, so I can see how, in the sixties, a bomb could be smuggled onto a plane on a route such as this!

Another gr8 show keep it comen an carry-on

Another great one. Thanks to Katy for writing it. Thanks to Simon for a great interesting read. Simon. No. Military personnel in that time and where they were going would not go through airport security. Also yes they probably had weapons on board although that would have been against regs. Thanks for another great vid .

This is a FASCINATING case! Good call miss Katie!

'Air America' is a 1980's comedy film starring Mel Gibson and a young (and obviously coked up) Robert Downey Jr. I suggest everyone check it out, it's a good flick.

Would love a video on the lost Malaysia flight too, Simon!

I was in the Marines in the early 80's. It was a pretty regular deal to transport troops from Oahu where we were stationed to the big Island (Hawaii) for training where the larger Army base was via commercial airline.

Really wondering whether Simon watches Mentour Pilot

In my opinion this is still less mysterious than that actually happened at the Dyatlov pass.

Am I right, Peter?!?... wait, wrong channel. Thanks for this series. I always appreciate the entertainment. 🤙🏾

Planes don't explode just like RMBK reactors don't explode, exept when they do, in specific rare ocasions, so in the case of 739 most likelly the plane had a mechanical failure and went down in the ocean, probably due to the maintenance in the engine, even more in these old times, like in TWA flight 800 wherr the probable cause according to NTSB was the fuel in the tank became vapor and combined with bad wiring exploded the plane.

There were two planes that collided and crashed in the Grand Canyon. It was in like the 50s or 60s.

The US Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) and Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) had been sending American "advisors" to Vietnam and nearby countries since 1950, ostensibly to help train our allies, but after the war my uncle who was an "advisor" in the '60s strongly hinted to my dad that they were doing some pretty shady stuff directly, especially in neutral Laos and Cambodia.

I'm here for the grenade on the plane discussion. Simon should do a live stream of his pilot training.

Yeah Simon I agree with you sounds like it got blown up. Another great video

Anyone know why these haven’t been coming out as podcasts?

There are several names that are currently considered female that started as male, names like Beverly, Leslie, Marion and Lyndall to name a few.

Sometimes I‘m amazed how many of fact bois stories have a connection to me. A random german hick. My granpa woked for the Flying Tigers out of Frankfurt before they were bought by FedEx.

Loving the stories on channel. Your newer writers are pretty good but there have been a few times I've noticed some added speculation and that sticks out too much imo. It would feel more natural if all interpretive speculation just comes from Simon on the fly. Still though, the content is always great!

I too get excited whenever I hear about a woman who did some cool ass sh!t only to find out it was just a man with a girly name. One assumes he had to overcome a childhood of being named Claire, so that's something anyway.

And with that, something about a plane, and now I'm going to watch some Formula 1. I'm sure this flight thing worked itself out. 😉

Now you have us all scratching our heads 🤔✈️💥

September 11th was way f*cked up. Watching each of the towers fall was undeniably brutal. You knew, and I mean KNEW, that hundreds, if not thousands, of people were dying right in front of you. True, most people saw it on TV but we all knew what we were actually witnessing. It felt like you'd been stabbed straight through your heart and directly into your soul.

Surely if a plane goes down in the pacific it's probably an accident and the surprise would be if it was actually found? PS One of the many things I like about Simon's channels is they often tackle material other channels revel in as 'spooky conspiracies', while Simon's view is uniformly "Nah, what's the most likely non-stupid explanation?" It does my cynical old heart good to see not everyone is a gullible moron.

A duck walking on a piano is just called Jazz.

Good video 👍

26:45 I mean individual people have in the past been hit by meteorites, even while sleeping in their home and a plane is a fair bit larger, and even a tiny meteroid is going to cause some massive damage. We do often miss pretty large ones that come in in earth's shadow even today, and back then there were barely any satellites in orbit. I wouldn't discount the idea out of hand. All it needs is a tiny chunk from a moderately-sized meteroid to break off in a way it doesn't completely burn up and hit the plane.

I can tell you that when traveling civilian as military, we do carry weapons and ammunition as secured cargo. Actually, you can do that as a civilian too. You just secure the weapon in a double locked case and you can even store the ammunition in the case with it if it's in the original packaging, secure packaging, or a loaded magazine that is not in the weapon. Some airline counter people are dumb and will insist you put the ammo in a separate container which can just be a checked bag, but you can do it. For military flight, we honestly just carried that shit on the aircraft. Especially in an AOR. Just took the magazine/ammo out of your weapon depending on what type of weapon you carry, and put the magazine/ammo in your bag or magazine pouch. If you're going into a direct combat mission from the aircraft, you just keep the magazine in the weapon. We were often required to wear our plate carriers + helmet even in fixed wing transport since it wasn't uncommon for small arms fire to be shot up at us on take off and landing so we had plenty of places to just put the magazines/ammo.

I think you should look into the case of Tom Oogle. He died I believe in the 70s and supposedly had made a fuel efficient engine

Both myself and my father were USAF. There are rigorous security checks and oversight for any military flight. Also, depending on the explosives or other ordnance involved, they may not travel fused for safety purposes. It’s all but certain that the aircraft simply had a mechanical failure. Aircraft engines aren’t exactly the least temperamental machines ever built. Sometimes they catch fire and/or explode. The vapor trail spotted could have been them venting fuel (followed by an explosion), or just regular condensation.

Subbed because I just saw a video decrying Simon for some reason. I support him. I shall sub on al his channels now.