CIA/Air America pilot to present ‘Last Plane Out of Cambodia’

Former Air America pilot Capt. Neil Hansen began his aviation career in Detroit as a pilot for Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa.
He later spent more than a decade in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War era as a captain for the CIA’s airline that operated there during the Vietnam era and the “Secret War” in Laos. His adrenaline addiction then took him to a flying job in Cambodia just prior to the Khmer Rouge takeover.
He will present his story – “Last Plane Out of Cambodia” — at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 5, at the Yankee Air Museum, 47884 D. Street, at Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township.
The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and there is no admission after 8 p.m. For information, call (734) 483-4030.
Capt. Hansen’s presentations bring audiences with him into the cockpit and onto the dirt mountain landing strips of Southeast Asia during a time in history when flying conditions were risky and avionics technology comparatively primitive.
A sought-after speaker in the aviation community and frequent presenter at EAA Oshkosh, Hansen is the author of “FLIGHT: An Air America Pilot’s Story of Adventure, Descent and Redemption” (History Publishing, 2019).
The historical aviation narrative incorporates the pathos of a war zone and its periphery, including Hansen’s harrowing escape piloting the last plane out of Cambodia hours before it fell to the Khmer Rouge, and later his inability to let go of the Air America adrenaline addiction that took him down a path he could have never imagined.
This spring marks the 45th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Most Americans are unaware that the iconic photo of that day, “The Last Helicopter” by photographer Hugh van Es, is an Air America helicopter, and not a military chopper.
The fall of Saigon was preceded by days by the fall of Cambodia, in which 1.7 million Cambodians lost their lives. Capt. Hansen fled mere hours before the Khmer Rouge closed the airspace.