Two U.S. F-18s reportedly collide over Iraq

MSNBC is saying that two US fighter jets collided in Iraq.
No word yet on casualties.

MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Navy officials said Monday that two F-18 fighter jets apparently were involved in an "air-to-air collision" over southern Iraq. There was no immediate word on the fate of the crew members.

The officials, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said there was "no initial indication that hostile fire" contributed to the loss of the U.S. Marine F/A-18 Hornet aircraft.

Depending on the model of the Marine F/A-18s, your looking at two to four pilots/co-pilots as possible casualties.

Not good and a very unfortunate event.



seekerof

Oh no, this is horrible. I really hope both crews were able to eject in time, but from the sounds of it, it seems likely that it wasnt possible.

From the sounds of it, it doesn't seem like hostile action either, just a horrible accident. The weather from what I see appears to be clear skies. Perhaps equipment malfunction?

Yeah this is sad indeed, but wth are they flying so close for? There are no reasons for air strikes anymore are there? This shouldn't have happened unless they were supporting some operation on the ground and had a miscommunication.


Damn...this sucks.

Here's the Centcom report:

Centcom
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- At approximately 10:10 p.m. May 2, contact was lost with two U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet aircraft from the U.S.S. Carl Vinson flying in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.

Status of the crew members is unknown at this time. Search efforts are currently underway. There was no initial indication of hostile fire in the area at the time contact was lost.

It's still pretty short on detalis.

If this turns out to be an equipment malfunction, i would *not* want to be working for the company that made that equipment tomorrow.

I speak from personal experience here. a piece of equipment my company makes was found to have a very nasty and widespread issue that needed to be resolved ASAP, and a good number of of these units were already integrated into a type of vehicle that is currently in use in the middle east by our customer.

let me tell you - all politics aside - this scared the hell out of me because i did not want my equipment to be the cause of someone's "really bad day" (if you catch my drift here...). So, my entire department worked 24/7 for about 4 days to resolve this issue with our customer. Turns out - these vehicles were basically being loaded to be shipped off as the fix was being applied and were not in the field yet so we got it in time... barely.

anyway, i'm sorry i cant be more detailed about it all but well, yeah, i can't.

Kinda reminds me of the book bravo two zero

Wonder if they did eject are on land, theyre currently hiding and hoping.

Early speculation is that it was a mishap that may have occurred because of wearing sight-limiting [peripheral vision] night-vision gear/equipment [helmet mounted or intergrated].




seekerof

[edit on 2-5-2005 by Seekerof]

CNN is running an article titled “U.S. searches for pilots of two missing jets”
www.cnn.com... claiming bad weather.

snip
Navy officials told CNN they believe the jets collided with each other in bad weather during the routine mission.
The crew of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson lost contact with the planes about 10:10 p.m. (2:10 p.m. ET), a U.S. military statement said.
"There was no indication of hostile fire in the area at the time contact was lost," the military statement said.
The Boeing-built F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather fight and attack aircraft that can carry either one- or two-person crews.
The aircraft, with a price tag of $35 million and up, have been in service since the 1980s.

Early speculation is that it was a mishap that may have occurred because of wearing sight-limiting [peripheral vision] night-vision gear/equipment [helmet mounted or intergrated].

I can see how that would be a problem for aircraft flying in close formation.

I hope the guys managed to bail out, but the lack of any word is not confidence inspiring. I'd think that with all the .mil activity in Iraq, if they'd gotten out they would probably have been picked up fairly quickly.

Well its war bad things happen and sometimes it happens to to your own side. I will watch with interest how this devlopes . War takes a mental toll on people which can lead to mistakes after all its ease to forgot that military personal are human. Dont get me wrong Im not stating the cause of the collision just adding my 10 cents.

They've located the remains of one of the pilots but the other crew member is still mising.

Centcom
REMAINS FOUND FROM APPARENT F/A-18 CRASH

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Early this morning local time, search teams located the body of a pilot from one of two missing U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 aircraft from the USS Carl Vinson.

The aircraft had been flying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom when contact was lost at approximately 10:10 p.m. May 2nd. The status of the second crew member is unknown at this time and search efforts continue.

There was no initial indication of hostile fire in the area at the time contact was lost. The incident is under investigation.

EDIT:
Here's an another article on it.
www.msnbc.msn.com...

[edit on 3-5-2005 by AceOfBase]

As terrible as this story is, and as much of a pessimist I am, I am waiting for all the claims of responsibility. Baghdad Bob and such.

"Our freedom fighters destroyed two of the evil empires machines of death today with one RPG and a pistol... allah akbar!"


I cant find it now, but CNN.com reported they were 2 seaters. So maybe 4 crewmen

CNN sadly has no clue what they are talking about.

They reported "the F-18 has a crew of two." As if all F-18's are two seater's.

Well, no. Some F-18's have a crew of two (B,D,F), some have a crew of one (A,C,E).

That fact seems to have escaped CNN.

There was one pilot in each of the single-seat jets, which had launched from the USS John Stennis on Monday. They were reported missing by U.S. military authorities on Monday evening.

Needless to say, it's a rather sad day at work. Whenever we lose any of our aircraft, whether a military fast mover, an Apache or a Chinook, or one of our 7xx passenger planes, things tend to be a little quieter here.

We know that war is hard, and accidents, like pilot error, enemy attacks, and aircraft malfunctions, happen. But that doesn't make it any easier on the families, or the teammates, or the people who built the airplanes.

[edit on 3-5-2005 by Off_The_Street]

I have seen reports that they were sucked in the Temporal Time Distortion and left this Timeline.

Seriously - why is everytime that a plane or a helicopter "dissapears" in the skies of Iraq that, its called An Accident?

Originally posted by Souljah
Seriously - why is everytime that a plane or a helicopter "dissapears" in the skies of Iraq that, its called An Accident?

I dont know .........how come every time a terrorist blows up a car load of bystanders its chalked up as another "Terrified American Troops Murder of Innocent Iraqis"?

Originally posted by Souljah
I have seen reports that they were sucked in the Temporal Time Distortion and left this Timeline.

Seriously - why is everytime that a plane or a helicopter "dissapears" in the skies of Iraq that, its called An Accident?

'

Oh brother, here it comes.... Let me guess Souljah, it was one of your "freedom" fighters (terrorist animals) with a slingshot that shot them down at 30 thousand feet? Please.

Originally posted by Amuk

Originally posted by Souljah
Seriously - why is everytime that a plane or a helicopter "dissapears" in the skies of Iraq that, its called An Accident?

I dont know .........how come every time a terrorist blows up a car load of bystanders its chalked up as another "Terrified American Troops Murder of Innocent Iraqis"?

I dont understand your Point, Amuk.

Originally posted by skippytjc

Originally posted by Souljah
I have seen reports that they were sucked in the Temporal Time Distortion and left this Timeline.

Seriously - why is everytime that a plane or a helicopter "dissapears" in the skies of Iraq that, its called An Accident?

'

Oh brother, here it comes.... Let me guess Souljah, it was one of your "freedom" fighters (terrorist animals) with a slingshot that shot them down at 30 thousand feet? Please.

You dont know what happened.

CNN does not know what really happened.

Its between these two aircraft pilots and the control tower.