Two US Navy pilots eject safely over Red Sea after fighter jet shot down in apparent friendly fire incident

CNN
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Two US Navy pilots ejected safely after their fighter jet was shot down over the Crimson Sea on Saturday in an obvious pleasant hearth incident, US Central Command mentioned in an announcement.

The pilots had been recovered, and one of many crew members sustained minor accidents, in keeping with preliminary assessments.

The plane, an F/A-18, was working from the USS Harry S. Truman when it was “mistakenly fired” upon by the USS Gettysburg, CENTCOM mentioned. The USS Gettysburg, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, is a part of the Truman service strike group, which entered the waters of the Center East one week in the past.

A full investigation is underway. CENTCOM burdened the incident was not the results of hostile hearth. The Iran-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen has repeatedly made false claims of hanging US warships working within the Crimson Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The US has maintained a near-constant presence of main Navy warships within the area for the reason that begin of the battle in Gaza, because the Houthis have focused ships within the Crimson Sea, one of many world’s busiest waterways, calling the assaults a response to Israel’s battle in opposition to Hamas.

The obvious pleasant hearth incident comes the identical day the US carried out airstrikes in opposition to Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility within the capital of Sana’a. The US additionally shot down one-way assault drones and an anti-ship cruise missile, in keeping with CENTCOM.

The strikes on the Iran-backed insurgent group concerned using Navy F/A-18 fighter jets, in addition to US Air Pressure property, CENTCOM mentioned.

In keeping with two US army officers, the downed fighter jet was not a part of the strikes in Yemen.

The Houthis, who management Yemen’s most populous areas, say they gained’t cease hanging Israel and its allies till a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.

The F/A-18 incident additionally got here the identical day Houthi forces in Yemen mentioned they fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at an Israeli army goal in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa space. The missile fired from Yemen hit Tel Aviv in a single day into Saturday, Israeli authorities mentioned, in a uncommon occasion of a failed interception over town.

Greater than a dozen individuals sustained minor accidents, in keeping with emergency providers, however no fatalities had been reported.

CNN’s Lauren Izso, Edward Szekeres and Kareem El Damanhoury contributed to this report.