 On October 26 , 1967 , McCain was flying his twenty @-@ third mission , part of a twenty @-@ plane strike force against the Yen Phu thermal power plant in central Hanoi that previously had almost always been off @-@ limits to U.S. raids due to the possibility of collateral damage . Arriving just before noon , McCain dove from 9 @,@ 000 to 4 @,@ 000 feet on his approach ; as he neared the target , warning systems in McCain 's A @-@ 4E Skyhawk alerted him that he was being tracked by enemy fire @-@ control radar . Like other U.S. pilots in similar situations , he did not break off the bombing run , and he held his dive until he released his bombs at about 3 @,@ 500 feet ( 1 @,@ 000 m ) . As he started to pull up , the Skyhawk 's wing was blown off by a Soviet @-@ made SA @-@ 2 anti @-@ aircraft missile fired by the North Vietnamese Air Defense Command 's 61st Battalion , commanded by Captain Nguyen Lan and with fire control officer Lieutenant Nguyen Xuan Dai . ( McCain was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for this day , while Nguyen Xuan Dai was awarded the title Hero of the People 's Armed Forces . Decades later , Soviet Army Lieutenant Yuri <unk> claimed that he had been the missile guidance officer who had shot McCain down . In any case , the raid was a failure , as the power plant was not damaged and three of the attacking planes were shot down . ) 
