Seaboard World Airlines landing at Marble Mountain

The Seaboard World Airlines landing at Marble Mountain was an incident that took place in Vietnam in summer 1969 (most likely in April). A transoceanic Douglas DC-8 Super 63 full of Vietnam-bound troops erroneously landed at Marble Mountain Air Facility, a helicopter support base with a 1.4 km (4300 ft) asphalt runway. Confused by the nighttime illumination, the aircrew had mistaken it for Da Nang Air Base, which had a 3.0 km (10,000 ft) runway. The aircrew made a full-stop landing with no damage or blown tires.
There were 217 American troops on the aircraft, which had originated at March Air Force Base via Honolulu and Guam. The aircraft landed at about 0300 hours, thus causing the entire base to go on alert. Several enterprising Marine officers put a ladder up to the door of the airplane and escorted the crew to their officer club. When daylight came fuel was drained from the tanks prior to backing the plane down the runway to make it light enough for a short-obstacle takeoff the next day. The plane was then ferried to Da Nang.
The marines brought school buses up to the plane doors and the 217 troops jumped onto their tops and then down the hood and onto the PCP runway. They were then all loaded aboard the buses for a trip to Danang Main. The commotion woke everyone at our Army OV-1 SAC camp, which shared the strip with the marines. We had a few beers, watched the confusion, and then went back to bed. We looked at the skid marks the next day, and the plane had set down about 800 ft. from the start of the runway. There were 4 black streaks till it stopped, but the nose gear never hit sand.

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