Crew dies in US military plane crash

Crash or shot down?

Four dead in US “Stratotanker” crash over Iraq

The United States has lost an important tanker aircraft over Iraq. There are various information about the cause.

Four crew members died when a US tanker plane crashed over Iraq. The US Central Command (Centcom) announced this on Friday; the tanker plane had already crashed on Thursday. Accordingly, the incident occurred during Operation “Epic Fury” in friendly airspace.

Centcom said two aircraft were involved in the incident. In addition to the crashed KC-135, another “Stratotanker” landed at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel. A photo posted on the short message service X is said to show the tanker. It can be seen that the large aircraft is missing part of the rear vertical tail. The “Times of Israel” also reports this version. According to the report, it was a special variant of the tanker aircraft that could also be refueled in the air and was therefore designed for particularly long missions.

However, there is conflicting information about the cause of the KC-135 crash. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella organization of armed groups, said one of its militias had taken down the plane. The shootdown was carried out “in defense of our country’s sovereignty and airspace.” It is currently not possible to say with certainty which of the two variants is correct.

Centcom, however, stated that the crash was not due to enemy or friendly fire. The command wants to publish further information as soon as reliable information is available. At the same time, the US military asked for patience so that it could provide the families of the affected soldiers with reliable information. The Reuters news agency reported that there were six soldiers on board the crashed KC-135.

The United States has already lost several fighter jets in the war against Iran. At the beginning of March, Kuwait accidentally shot down three F-15 fighter jets that were targeted by its own air defense. When the planes were shot down, the pilots were able to save themselves using the ejector seat.

The crash of the KC-135 is the first crash during a combat mission since 2013. At that time, a technical malfunction was the cause of the crash over northern Kyrgyzstan, where the “Stratotanker” was flying a support mission for fighter jets that were bombing targets of the Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan. At that time, all three members of the crew died.