War photographer Hubert van Es dies

Friday 15 May 2009

Dutch war photographer Hubert van Es, who took the famous photograph of a US army helicopter picking people up from a roof in Saigon during the Vietnam war, has died at the age of 67.

The photo became a symbol of the chaotic pull-out by the Americans. Van Es, who worked for US press agency UPI, took the photo by chance when the helicopter landed on the roof close to the hotel he was staying in.

'There was no possibility that all the people on the roof could get into the helicopter, and it took off with 12 or 14 on board. (The recommended maximum for that model was eight.) Those left on the roof waited for hours, hoping for more helicopters to arrive. To no avail,' he said in an article with the New York Times.

Van Es died of a stroke in Hong Kong where he had lived for years, Nos tv said.

© DutchNews.nl

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