Five Dead as US Military Aircraft Crashes in Mediterranean During Training Sortie

The aircraft was conducting a training exercise in the eastern Mediterranean when it experienced a “mishap,” USEUCOMM announced. All five crew members have been declared dead. The cause of the mishap is still under investigation, although officials said the “sortie” was “purely related to training” and was not the result of “hostile activity.”

“On the evening of November 10, a U.S. military aircraft conducting training operations in the eastern Mediterranean suffered a mishap and went down,” USEUCOMM wrote in the press release. “The cause of the training incident is currently under investigation. However, we can definitively say that the aircraft sortie was purely related to training and there are no indications of hostile activity.”

EUCOMM said that the accident occurred during a routine in-air refueling operation that was part of the training mission and the press release referred to the aircraft as a helicopter.

The military declined to release more information about the personnel involved “out of respect for the families affected.”

President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday, “Jill and I are praying for the families and friends who have lost a precious loved one – a piece of their soul. Our entire nation shares their grief.”