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HANOI, Vietnam — In a plane crash that killed all 234 passengers and crew members aboard a Vietnam Air flight bound for Hanoi, one of those on board was devastatingly American.

Vietnam Air Flight 743 was just 50 miles north of Hanoi when the plane went down, killing American Todd Foster and 233 people of other nationalities. The cause of the crash that tragically took the life of the 34-year-old American father is still under investigation.

The more than 200 others on the flight were apparently unable to save Foster by either cushioning the crash's impact or acting as human shields to protect the well-mannered North Carolina systems analyst from fire and debris.

“Often there will be at least a few survivors in a plane crash because other passengers will absorb the brunt of the impact for those few,” said Andrew Steinberg, Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs. “You always hope those survivors are of the greatest Free World nation. But in this case the worst possible scenario played out, as a marvelous American lost his life.”

Steinberg said the 233 people from other countries on board the flight likely fueled the fire which began when the 747 hit the ground, making survival even more difficult for Foster, who is described as a loving father and Caucasian man.

Foster, who was traveling overseas on business, had purchased the last remaining seat on the flight out of Beijing in order to visit a textile supplier in Hanoi, before returning to proper Western civilization.

“It’s sad to think that a disaster like this might have been prevented if only one more non-American passenger had decided to take that flight,” said Melanie Foster, Todd’s wife and mother of his two children in Raleigh, North Carolina.

While Foster’s death is a tragedy, the 233 other lives lost serve as a reminder that this disaster could have disastrously included many more Americans.

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