April 2, 1975 // WORLD AIRWAYS: Ed Daly Flight

World Airways DC-8 flight evacuated 58 orphans and 27 adults from Saigon. Ed Daly’s maverick approach toward these evacuation flights were implicitly sanctioned the next day when President Gerald R. Ford announced that the United States government would provide airlift for over 2,000 other Vietnamese orphans in a program called Operation BABYLIFT. Daly and World were heavily involved in this effort as well. Of the 2,894 orphans that reached the United States between April 3 and May 9, 1975, the date that the State Department officially ended the evacuation of the children, World Airways joined other privately contracted airlines to carry 1,090 of them. (Roger Launius)

Flight Attendant On Saigon Evacuation: You Wanted 'To Help Every Child', NPR

The Wildness of World Airways