The Pentagon recognized the six service members killed when a U.S. KC-135 refueling plane crashed in western Iraq on Thursday.
Three of the Air Power airmen have been assigned to the sixth Air Refueling Wing, MacDill Air Power Base in Florida: Maj. John A. Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama; Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington; and Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky
The opposite three airmen have been assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air Nationwide Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio: Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana; Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio; and Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio
The crash, which concerned one other KC-135 tanker, remains to be beneath investigation.
A US Air Power Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aerial-refuelling plane flies over Tel Aviv on March 4, 2026. Israel launched contemporary strikes on Iran and Lebanon, the place state media reported a residential constructing was hit on March 4, as Iran’s Guards stated they’d sealed off one of many world’s most important transport routes for power.
Jack Guez/AFP through Getty Pictures
The plane was misplaced whereas flying over pleasant airspace in western Iraq March 12 throughout Operation Epic Fury, in line with U.S. Central Command.
The KC-135 plane went down at roughly 2 p.m. ET on Thursday when two plane have been concerned in “an incident,” CENTCOM stated in a quick assertion, confirming that “one of many plane went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely.”Â
“The incident occurred over pleasant territory in western Iraq whereas the crew was on a fight mission, and once more, was not the end result, as CENTCOM has stated, was not the results of hostile or pleasant hearth,” Joint Chiefs of Employees Chairman Gen. Dan Caine stated throughout a Protection Division briefing on Friday.
The opposite plane concerned was additionally a KC-135 tanker, in line with a U.S. official.
On Friday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine stated three of the service members killed have been Ohioans deployed with the Ohio Air Nationwide Guard’s 121st Air Refueling Wing are among the many six service members killed within the refueling mission.
A U.S. Air Power KC-135 Stratotanker flies over the U.S. Central Command space of accountability, in an undisclosed location, July 22, 2025.
USAF, Information
KC-135 plane usually are not geared up with parachutes and should not have ejection seats, that are primarily in fighter plane, officers have instructed ABC Information.
Passengers and crew members of KC-135s as a substitute are skilled on learn how to exit the plane when it’s on land or on water, officers stated.
In accordance with a 2008 Air Power profile of the tanker crews, the transfer to eliminate parachutes was made as a result of the tankers “seldom have mishaps, and the chance a KC-135 crew member would ever want to make use of a parachute is extraordinarily low.”
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