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| Date: | Wednesday 23 December 1964 |
| Time: | 11:30 |
| Type: |  North American RA-5C Vigilante |
| Owner/operator: | United States Navy (USN) |
| Registration: | 151621 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | De Bary, FL -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | NAS Sanford, FL |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Crashed in a city street after explosion. Crew bailed out at low level. Pilot Cmdr Cornelius Nolta, Jr, was killed. Navigator Lt Paul Stokes (35) landed with back injuries.
Shortly after T/O from NAS Sanford and at 2,200’ altitude the RA-5C entered a mild porpoise which progressively increased with a gradual decent. The RAN asked the pilot what was wrong and the pilot replied, “I don’t know! I don’t know!” As the aircraft pitched over passing through 1,300’ the RAN ejected. The pilot ejected approx. 4 seconds after at 800-900’. The RAN’s parachute deployed slightly above tree-top level and he survived with injuries. The pilot’s parachute streamed but did not deploy when he contacted the ground about 400 feet from the aircraft (seat and man impact were 10 feet apart). The pilot was killed instantaneously. The aircraft crashed 2 minutes into the flight between two civilian houses (by 19 & 20 Shell Road about 9 miles northwest of NAS Sanford). The pilot may have delayed his ejection until it was too late in order to try to avoid crashing into the heavily populated area.
Cause was an unknown component failure in the pitch augmentation system.
The aircraft contacted the ground at a 45 degree dive angle, slightly right wing down. Fragments of the aircraft were propelled over a wide residential area. The larger pieces of the airframe and engines remained in the crater. Only the large, dense components of the hydraulic and control systems were recovered from the crater.
Two houses and a car were destroyed. Two civilians on the ground were hospitalized with moderate injuries.
This Vigilante had just been manufactured on 15 August 1964 and accepted on 5 October 1964 and only had 114 hours on it.
Sources:
http://www.forgottenjets.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/A-5.html
The Victoria Advocat 24 December 1964, p11A
US Navy accident report.
Location
Images:
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Jan-2022 18:44 | TB | Updated [Operator, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 04-Jun-2024 10:44 | ChrisB | Updated [Time, Phase, Source, Narrative, Category, Photo] |
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