Four crew members died in crash of US KC-135 refueling plane in Iraq, US military confirms

The US military’s Central Command confirmed early Friday that at least four American service members were killed the day before, when a refueling plane participating in operations against Iran crashed in western Iraq. CENTCOM said rescue efforts were still underway for two other crew members.

“At approximately 2 p.m. ET on March 12, a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq. Four of the six crew members aboard the aircraft have been confirmed dead as rescue efforts continue. The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” CENTCOM said in its statement, shared on social media.

He said the identities of the service members who died in the crash would be withheld until 24 hours after their families were notified. The accident raises the total number of American service members killed since the United States and Israel launched war against Iran from February 28 to 11, including six forces killed in an Iranian attack on Kuwait and one killed in Saudi Arabia.

U.S. officials told News themezone they believe the incident may have involved a mid-air collision, but they were still investigating.

Officials told News themezone on Thursday that a second U.S. Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker was damaged but landed safely Thursday, but no further details about that plane were available Friday morning. According to flight tracking service FlightRadar24, a KC-135 tanker plane declared an emergency before landing in Tel Aviv on Thursday night.

The first plane crashed near Turaibil, which lies along the Iraq-Jordan border, an Iraqi intelligence source told News themezone.

Central Command said in a statement earlier Thursday that both planes were involved in the same incident, which was not caused by hostile or friendly fire.

It was the fourth publicly acknowledged American plane crash related to Operation Epic Fury. Last Monday, the US military confirmed that three F-15E Strike Eagles were shot down in a friendly fire incident involving Kuwait, but all six crew members ejected safely.

Each service branch has its own terminology for launching downed aircraft recovery missions, but they are generally called tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel, or TRAP, missions. These types of missions are deployed quickly after a plane crash and can be dangerous as U.S. forces rush to secure the crash site before enemy forces do. The goal is to recover pilots or crew members (who may be injured or killed) and recover or destroy sensitive equipment that remains intact.