retrieve flight status this many times?
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.
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