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U.S. Military Tanker Crashes in Western Iraq; Crew Status Unknown
Washington D.C. – A U.S. military aerial refueling tanker, a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, according to multiple U.S. officials. The aircraft was reportedly involved in American military operations in Iran.
Recovery efforts are currently underway at the crash site. The condition of the crew aboard the Stratotanker remains unknown at this time. A second Stratotanker involved in the incident sustained damage but managed to land safely.
An Iraqi intelligence source informed CBS News that the downed aircraft crashed near Turaibil, a location situated along the Iraqi-Jordanian border. Flight tracking service FlightRadar24 also reported a KC-135 tanker declaring an emergency before its landing in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening.
U.S. Central Command released a statement Thursday afternoon confirming that both aircraft were involved in the same incident, adding that the crash was not a result of hostile or friendly fire.
This incident marks the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft crash within Operation Epic Fury. Just last Monday, the U.S. military confirmed that three F-15E Strike Eagles were downed in a friendly-fire incident involving Kuwait. Fortunately, all six crew members from that incident safely ejected.
In the event of a downed aircraft, each branch of the U.S. military employs its own terminology for recovery operations, often referred to generally as Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel (TRAP) missions. These missions involve rapid deployment to secure the crash site before potential enemy forces, with the primary objectives of retrieving pilots or crew members (whether injured or deceased) and recovering or destroying any intact sensitive equipment.