Thirty-four years ago Viktoria Cowley was a cover girl. She was one of 99 babies and children airlifted from Saigon as part of a tabloid newspaper’s ‘mercy mission’ as the Vietcong advanced at the end of the Vietnam War.
Her picture adorned the front page as headlines decreed that she and the other ‘orphans’ had been saved from an uncertain future and a potentially terrible fate.
But now, three decades after her arrival in Britain, Viktoria (known as Vikki) who now lives in Eastbourne, is on a mission of her own – to reunite her fellow travellers.
At the time of the Daily Mail’s orphan airlift in April 1975, described as an emergency evacuation, Vikki had already been identified for adoption by Seaford couple, Douglas and Jennifer Cowley. Douglas was working in Vietnam and for Vikki, the flight came at the right time.
But her swift departure meant she has no idea about her background, her birth parents, why she was adopted or even what her real birth date is.
In the first of a two-part feature to be broadcast on Monday, November 9 on BBC One, BBC South East Inside Out follows Vikki as she works to discover the truth about her past and uncover the fates of as many of her fellow ‘orphans’ as she can.
The film includes archive footage of the children’s flight and arrival in the UK as well as capturing Vikki’s reunion with 15 of her airlift siblings. And she hopes by documenting her own story it will encourage other orphans to come forward.
Speaking in the film Vikki says; “I’ve set myself a bit of challenge, in that 99 children came over on that airlift to the UK. And I’d love to be able to just get in contact with them, share their story, just find how much they know about themselves, about the airlift. And I’d like to be able to contact as many as I possibly can.
“Most of my spare time I’m never off my computer. I’m always doing something. I’m always writing an email to someone or arranging something. There are a lot of adoptees that I have contacted both in the UK and worldwide.”
She adds; “It’s almost like a pane of glass; that pane of glass was the Babylift and as a result of touching down in the UK, that pane has actually been dropped and shattered and I’m trying to get hold of all those shards of glass to make it one again.”
The next part of Vikki’s journey to find out more about her own history in Vietnam will be broadcast in the New Year.
If you have information on the airlift or any of the 99 orphans you can contact Vikki through the BBC’s Inside Out website. Visit bbc.co.uk/insideout and follow the links to the South East.
Vikki’s story with BBC South East Inside Out will be broadcast on BBC One, Monday November 9, at 7.30pm.
