While living in Hong Kong in 1975 during the end of the Vietnam War, Mark and his mother signed on as volunteer chaperones for the maiden flight of Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children and war orphans. A few hours before departing for Saigon on 04 April, they were put on hold due to North Vietnamese Army rocket fire shelling Tan Son Nhut air base, where they were to land. Cathay Pacific then cancelled their departing flight because of the danger. The plane in Saigon they were to be on, a US Air Force C-5A Galaxy, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 138 of the 314 people on board.
