New York : A Kuwaiti F/A-18 Hornet aircraft is suspected to have accidentally shot down the three US F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets amid Washington’s joint offensive with Israel against Iran. The pilot of the F/A-18 Hornet mistakenly launched three missiles towards the three US jets, which went down over Kuwait.
Viral videos on social media showed one of the US F-15 jets spinning and spiralling downwards with its tail on fire as smoke billowed from it. The US Central Command said the three US jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defences. It said the incident happened during active combat, which included attacks from Iranian missiles and drones.
The Iranian armed forces claimed responsibility for hitting a US aircraft that crashed in Kuwait, Reuters reported. However, General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has asserted that the incident was not due to “hostile enemy fire”. The incident happened as Kuwait intercepted hostile drones amid Iran’s retaliatory strikes.
The incident, however, has left aviation experts perplexed. A former Air Force pilot said pilots of allied countries are trained to follow procedures to avert such mistakes. If you are flying air defence missions, the first thing you do is interrogate using your transponder… It’s pretty hard to mistake an F-15E for an Iranian aircraft, and particularly if they are not manoeuvring in any kind of aggressive fashion,” he said.
The F-15E is a dual-role fighter jet that is capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The incident only highlights the chaos that the conflict has brought to the Middle East. On Sunday, an Iranian drone strike on a US base in Kuwait left six American soldiers dead.
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