Did McCain really get shot down FIVE times?

[manifold]

If so, doesn't that mean he was an absolutely terrible pilot?

 

[busara]

no, it means he is a big supporter of the aircraft manufacturing industry

 

[Modbert]

If so, doesn't that mean he was an absolutely terrible pilot?

Well if a Pilot crashed five times with any company plane then he would of been fired the first time maybe if not the second time.

But since John McCain had friends in high places.

 

[Navy1960]

He actully got shot down once manifold, and lost his first aircraft in a training accident, his second due to a flame out, his third when he was flyng too low and hit a power line, and the fourth when a zuni rocket from and F-4 Phantom hit his A-4 on the Forrestal. The 5th one he was in was shot down by a SA-2 Missle over Hanoi.

 

[manifold]

He actully got shot down once manifold, and lost his first aircraft in a training accident, his second due to a flame out, his third when he was flyng too low and hit a power line, and the fourth when a zuni rocket from and F-4 Phantom hit his A-4 on the Forrestal. The 5th one he was in was shot down by a SA-2 Missle over Hanoi.

thanks.

 

[eots]

so McCain doesn't really know jack shit about winning a war...he knows a lot about how to crash a jet... get captured and be tortured...great

 

[manifold]

Wait a minute...

Are telling me that Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun (Maverick) wasn't based on John McCain?

 

[Navy1960]

This was a bad day for the Vietnamese Peoples Air Force, losing eleven aircraft. Navy fighters destroyed eight MiGs, six by VF-96 in USS Constellation (CVA64). Three of the MiG-17s were downed by one VF-96 crew, LT. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and his RIO, LT(JG) Willie Driscoll, flying a Phantom F-4J, ShowTime 100. Combined with two earlier kills on 19 January and 8 May, the victories would make Cunningham and Driscoll the first American aces of the Vietnam War and the first to make all their kills with missiles.

They were participating in a strike against the Hai Dong railyards, on flak suppression, when a score of enemy fighters challenged them.

Cunningham's Phantom carried two AIM-7E Sparrow long-range missiles, eight AIM-9J Sidewinder short-range missiles, and twelve "Rockeye" cluster bombs. After dropping their bombs on some warehouses, Showtime 100 loitered to cover the A-7 fighter-bombers still engaged. Responding to a call for help, Cunningham took his F-4J into a group of MiG-17s ("Frescoes"), two of which promptly jumped them. Heeding a "break" warning from Grant in Showtime 113, Cunningham broke sharply and the lead pursuing MiG-17 overshot him. He instantly reversed his turn, putting the MiG dead ahead; he loosed a Sidewinder and it destroyed the MiG.

Randy Cunningham, Navy Phantom Pilot, Vietnam Ace

A pretty good site if anyone is intrested, Cunningham disgraced himself when he went to the house and now is paying the price for that.

 

[Modbert]

Wait a minute...

Are telling me that Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun (Maverick) wasn't based on John McCain?

That'd be correct.

 

[Navy1960]

McCain III lost jet number one in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while practicing landings. He was knocked unconscious by the impact coming to as the plane settled to the bottom.

McCain's second crash occurred while he was deployed in the Mediterranean. "Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula," Timberg wrote, "he took out some power lines [reminiscent of the 1998 incident in which a Marine Corps jet sliced through the cables of a gondola at an Italian ski resort, killing 20] which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral."

McCain's third crash three occurred when he was returning from flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game.

Timberg reported that McCain radioed, "I've got a flameout" and went through standard relight procedures three times before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain landed on a deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees.

McCain's fourth aircraft loss occurred July 29, 1967, soon after he was assigned to the USS Forrestal as an A-4 Skyhawk pilot. While seated in the cockpit of his aircraft waiting his turn for takeoff, an accidently fired rocket slammed into McCain's plane. He escaped from the burning aircraft, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors, destroyed at least 20 aircraft, and threatened to sink the ship.

McCain's fifth loss happened during his 23rd mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 26, 1967, when McCain's A-4 Skyhawk was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. McCain ejected from the plane breaking both arms and a leg in the process and subsequently parachuted into Truc Bach Lake near Hanoi.

Excuse me everyone I had the order a little wrong his second Aircraft was the one he hit the powerlines with.