Last Flight Out (1990, TV Movie Based on the Story of Pan Am's Allan Topping)

"It's chaos in Saigon April 22-24, 1975, before the last Pan Am/civil flight out. Vietcong is closing in on Saigon and many want to get on it."

This 1990 NBC TV movie is based on the real life true story of Pan Am's Allan Topping, the airline's Director of South Vietnam & Cambodia who is played by James Earl Jones. Also starring Richard Crenna, Eric Bogosian, and Rosalind Chao. The movie is directed by Larry Elikann and written by Walter Halsey Davis. The movie was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic Underscore), composer Christopher Young.

Pan American World Airways and Mr. Topping were involved with the making of this production.

Note: the plane used in the movie is a rented L-1011 from TWA with temporary Pan Am livery, not a Boeing 747 that was actually used in real events. No 747s were available at the time of production.

On April 24, 1975, Topping faced down armed South Vietnamese soldiers to bring 463 passengers to freedom. The next day, Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces.

In the days leading up to the last flight, Topping spent many sleepless nights anxious to figure out a way to evacuate his Vietnamese staff. As the Pan Am Director for Vietnam and Cambodia, he had successfully managed flights for Operation Babylift just a week prior, evacuating orphaned children out of South Vietnam.

In an effort to save his staff, Topping devised a strategy and convinced the South Vietnamese government of a plan that would allow him to get his staff, and their immediate family members, out of the country.

Despite FAA mandated cessation of all U.S. commercial air service to-and-from South Vietnam, Topping managed to arrange for one last emergency charter flight out of Saigon.

A Pan Am Boeing 747, packed with 463 passengers and desperate to escape communist forces, took off for Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Here, the evacuees were offloaded and transferred via a charter flight to Guam where they would be processed and eventually sent to the United States.

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