US military aircraft goes down in Mediterranean after training mishap
U.S. European Command says the aircraft went down Friday evening during a routine training flight. The incident is under investigation.
An American military aircraft “went down” in the eastern Mediterranean Friday night, U.S. European Command announced Saturday afternoon.
The unspecified aircraft was conducting a training flight the evening of Nov. 10 and “suffered a mishap and went down,” EUCOM reported.
It is not clear what service branch the personnel involved are a part of, nor where the aircraft was assigned to. EUCOM also did not provide any additional information regarding how many people were aboard the aircraft, how many injuries or fatalities occurred and if the incident happened over land or sea.
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“Out of respect for the families affected, we will not release further information on the personnel involved at this time,” European Command said in its statement.
The incident is under investigation, per the military.
In addition to its bases in Europe, the U.S. military has the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the eastern Mediterranean. The strike group was deployed there following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas. A second carrier strike group, headed by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, was initially in the eastern Mediterranean Sea but passed through the Suez Canal to the Middle East.
“However, we can definitively say that the aircraft sortie was purely related to training and there are no indications of hostile activity,” EUCOM added.
Last year the U.S. Navy had an F/A-18 Super Hornet blown overboard into the eastern Mediterranean Sea as a result of severe weather. The jet, assigned to the USS Harry S. Truman, was eventually recovered a month later.
This is a developing story.
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