| Date: 5 May 1968 |
| Aircraft type: RA-5C Vigilante |
| Serial Number: 149278 |
| Military Unit: RVAH-1 |
| Service: USN |
| Home Base: USS Enterprise |
| Name(s): |
| Lt Giles Roderick Norrington (POW) |
| Lt Richard George Tangeman (POW) |
| For all its strength and size, an aircraft like the RA-5C Vigilante could just as easily be destroyed by light anti-aircraft fire as a smaller aircraft like the A-1 or the A-4. One of the Enterprise’s Vigilantes was conducting a photographic reconnaissance along Route 1A near Ha Tinh when it was shot down. As the aircraft (call sign Comanche Trail 1) was approaching the village of Xom Hoai, 15 miles to the west of Ha Tinh, at around 6,500 feet it was seen to burst into a huge fireball about twice the size of the aircraft. The aircraft then snapped rolled to the right as the starboard wing separated from the fuselage. Miraculously, both the crew ejected but were injured and soon captured. It was presumed that an anti-aircraft shell had hit a critical part of the aircraft’s structure causing the catastrophic break-up. Lts Norrington and Tangeman had flown together as a crew since they converted to the Vigilante in 1965. They had flown 22 missions over North Vietnam before being shot down and were both repatriated on 14 March 1973. |
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