U.S. AIRCRAFT SHOT DOWN OVER NORTH

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32210, 31 January 1970, Page 11

U.S. AIRCRAFT SHOT DOWN OVER NORTH

■ tN.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright; SAIGON, January 30. The United States Military Command in Saigon admitted for the first time today that a United States Air Force jet fighterbomber and a giant rescue helicopter were shot down over North Vietnam on Wednesday, after an attack on a missile base there.

The incident was the most serious of its kind since President Johnson halted the bombing of the North on November 1, 1968, but Washington has denied promptly that offensive raids on the North have been resumed. The command statement was issued after an announcement by the White House last night that reconnaissance flights would continue over North Vietnam, despite the loss of the two aircraft The command spokesman said that the fighterbomber, an FlO5 Thunderchief, was brought down by ground fire while attacking a surface-to-air missile site 12 miles

north-east of the Mu Gia Pass, on the Laos-North Vietnam border and 37 miles north-west of the Demilitarised Zone. It was one of several FlO5 and F 4 Phantom jets escorting an - unarmed reconnaissance aircraft which had come under fire from the site.

The rescue helicopter was shot down nearly two hours later by a North Vietnamese MIG2I jet interceptor while its crew were trying to rescue the two FlO5 pilots.

The helicopter crew and the fighter pilots have been listed as missing. “It should be emphasised that the mission of the aircraft attacked by the MiGs was routine reconnaissance, and that ordinance expended by the escort aircraft was in response to the North Viet namese attack,” the command spokesman said.

The FlO5 was the eighth American aircraft shot down during reconnaissance flights over the North, since the

bombing halt, and the 924th lost in combat operations since the first United States raids there in August, 1964. The helicopter was the eleventh lost over North Vietnam.

American Stratofortress bombers today blasted North Vietnamese troop positions in the Cambodian border area of the Mekong Delta, where there has been almost continuous fighting in recent weeks.

The eight-engined aircraft made two raids in the area west of Saigon where South Vietnamese rangers yesterday reported killing 10 Communist regular soldiers and destroying 10 mortars. An estimated 2000 North Vietnamese are entrenched in the foothills of the seven mountains straddling the Cambodian border in the delta zone, and South Vietnamese rangers and infantrymen have been clashing with some of them during the last few weeks.