On this day in aviation history, March 21, 1951, a true aviation miracle took place. Two United States Navy F9F Panther fighter jets, from Fighter Squadron VF-191 \u201cSatan\u2019s Kittens,\u201d were on a ground attack mission over Korea. Piloted by Ensign Floryan \u201cFrank\u201d Sobieski and Lieutenant Junior Grade Pat Murphy, these F9Fs were about to face an unexpected challenge that would change the course of their mission.<\/p>\n
During a strafing run to deliver ammunition on North Korean targets, Ensign Sobieski\u2019s F9F was struck by ground fire from an anti-aircraft battery directly in its flight path. While the F9F wasn\u2019t critically damaged, and more importantly, Ensign Sobieski himself wasn\u2019t physically harmed, the young aviator wasn\u2019t completely unscathed. The flash from the North Korean AA gun had temporarily blinded him. Unable to see, Sobieski faced a serious obstacle while flying at a high speed\u2014a challenge no pilot would want to face.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On this day in aviation history, March 21, 1951, a true aviation miracle took place. Two United States Navy F9F Panther fighter jets, from Fighter Squadron VF-191 \u201cSatan\u2019s Kittens,\u201d were on a ground attack mission over Korea. Piloted by Ensign Floryan \u201cFrank\u201d Sobieski and Lieutenant Junior Grade Pat Murphy, these F9Fs were about to face …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":null,"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[98,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-companies","category-featured-en"],"yoast_head":"\n
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