Rescue Attempts

     April 25 1980, Operation Eagle Claw, a U.S. lead rescue mission, failed. It left five C130 crewman and three helicopter team members dead. A coalition of Navy Seals, Delta Force units, and Air Force had entered Iran and rendezvoused at a remote refueling location called Desert One.  This mission started as a simple plan to have a group of H-53 transport helicopters, and C-130 transport and refueling planes, meet at a predetermined location.  Following the rendezvous, the H-53 helicopters would refuel and load the special forces teams who would have arrived on the C-130s.  The helicopters would then fly the Special Forces Teams to Tehran to unload them in the American Embassy so they could evacuate the hostages.

    This plan would fail before the helicopters could even be refueled.  First, one helicopter experienced engine problems and had to turn back flying on its reserve engine.  A second helicopter reached the rendezvous, but immediately experienced hydraulic problems deemed to be unrepairable in the existing desert conditions.  The loss of these two helicopters brought the number of helicopters to below the minimum number required for the mission.  While the remaining helicopters were landing, one crashed into a fully fueled C-130 transport craft, engulfing both aircraft in a fireball.  At this point the US death toll was eight with additional wounded. An effort was made to salvage and repair the aircraft.  What was originally intended to be a 30-minute operation, turned into several hours.

    As time dragged on, the US roadblock team encountered problems.  An Iranian fuel truck, and then a bus full of twenty passengers, came down the road.  A special forces team was dispatched to stop the bus and guard the passengers to make sure their position remained secret.
 

   The on-site commander, faced with lengthy delays and hostile prisoners, decided to call the operation off and put the emergency evacuation plan into effect.   Everyone was loaded onto the C-130s.  All of the C-130s took off successfully and made it back to the Allied air base in Oman. On the way back, the radio specialist of the final C-130 called in a bombardment to destroy the deserted equipment at Desert One.