| Date: 12 July 1969 |
| Aircraft type: F-4D Phantom |
| Serial Number: 66-7697 |
| Military Unit: 433 TFS, 8 TFW |
| Service: USAF |
| Home Base: Ubon |
| Name(s): |
| Maj Paul Wedlake Bannon (KIA) |
| 1Lt Peter Xavier Pike (KIA) |
| The third Wolf FAC to be lost went missing during a visual reconnaissance mission over the northern sector of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Laotian panhandle. The target area was shrouded by low cloud and Maj Bannon radioed that he was trying to find a break in the cloud to move to another part of the Trail. The transmission suddenly stopped in mid-sentence at the same time as the aircraft’s radar return disappeared. The aircraft was lost in a remote mountainous area south of Ban Nathon and it was thought unlikely that either of the crew had survived the incident. Whether the aircraft had been shot down or flew into a mountain could not be determined. Maj Bannon was the Wolf FAC operations officer while 1Lt Pike was on his first Wolf mission. |
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