The U.S. military confirmed Friday that all six crew members aboard a KC-135 refueling aircraft died in a crash while supporting operations against Iran.
U.S. Central Command, responsible for the Middle East, reported that Thursday’s crash in western Iraq occurred after an unspecified incident with two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” with the other plane landing safely.
This incident raises the U.S. death toll in Operation Epic Fury to at least 13 service members, with the other seven killed in combat. The Pentagon reported earlier this week that approximately 140 U.S. service members have been wounded, eight of them severely.
The KC-135 has served for over 60 years and has been involved in multiple fatal accidents, the most recent in 2013. Concerns about their reliability are heightened by the fact that these aircraft don’t always carry parachutes.
Here is what is currently known about the tanker, which marks the fourth U.S. military aircraft publicly acknowledged to have crashed since the war against Iran started on Feb. 28:
Cause of crash not immediately known
U.S. Central Command stated that investigators are examining the circumstances of the crash, but emphasized that the aircraft’s loss was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.”
A U.S. official, speaking anonymously to address the evolving situation, identified the other involved aircraft as also being a KC-135. Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., posted on X that the other plane made a safe landing in Israel.
General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Pentagon reporters Friday morning that the crash happened “over friendly territory in western Iraq while the crew was executing a combat mission,” and repeated that neither hostile nor friendly fire caused the incident.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at the same briefing, described the crew as heroes.
“War is hell. War is chaos,” Hegseth stated. “And as we witnessed yesterday with the tragic crash of our KC-135 tanker, bad things occur. They were all American heroes.”
Hegseth and Caine addressed reporters prior to the public announcement of the six crew members’ deaths.
Yang Uk, a security specialist at South Korea’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, noted that enemy fire downing a refueling tanker would be unusual, as such missions typically take place behind combat zones.
Last week, friendly Kuwaiti fire mistakenly shot down three U.S. F-15E fighter jets. All six crew members successfully ejected.
The KC-135 is a long-serving tanker plane
The KC-135 Stratotanker is a U.S. Air Force plane designed for midair refueling of other aircraft, enabling them to cover greater distances and extend operations without landing. Military experts note the aircraft also serves to transport injured personnel during medical evacuations and to perform surveillance missions.
“The final units of these aircraft were manufactured in the 1960s,” Yang stated.
Derived from the same design as the Boeing 707 passenger jet, the KC-135 will be progressively retired as additional next-generation KC-46A Pegasus tankers become operational.
The Congressional Research Service reported that the Air Force possessed 376 KC-135s last year, comprising 151 on active duty, 163 in the Air National Guard, and 62 in the Air Force Reserve.
A standard KC-135 crew comprises three personnel: a pilot, co-pilot, and boom operator. Nurses and medical technicians are added for aeromedical evacuation missions.
Refueling normally occurs at the aircraft’s rear, where the boom operator is positioned. A fuel boom is extended to link up with fighters, bombers, or other planes. On many aircraft, the boom operator works prone, peering through a window on the plane’s underside.
Certain KC-135s can also refuel aircraft from wing-mounted pods. The tankers have capacity to transport cargo or passengers when necessary.
Yang indicated that refueling tankers could assume greater importance if the Iran war continues, as U.S. aircraft may require longer missions to chase Iranian forces withdrawing further into the nation’s interior.
A question about parachutes
KC-135s have participated in multiple fatal accidents. The latest happened on May 3, 2013, when an aircraft crashed after departing from south of Chaldovar, Kyrgyzstan, while supporting Afghanistan operations.
A U.S. Air Force investigation determined that the crew encountered rudder malfunctions in that accident. As the crew fought to stabilize the aircraft, the tail section detached and the plane exploded in midair, killing all three aboard.
The most severe midair collision involving this aircraft occurred in 1966, when a B-52 bomber loaded with nuclear weapons collided with a tanker near Palomares, Spain.
The collision caused the tanker to crash, killing four crew members. The catastrophe necessitated a massive decontamination operation to remove nuclear material released when conventional explosives in the hydrogen bombs exploded upon impact with the ground.
Alan Diehl, a former Air Force Safety Center investigator who analyzed KC-135 accidents, stated that the aircraft maintains a strong overall safety record, receives proper maintenance, and frequently gets upgraded with new equipment.
However, Diehl raised a critical question about whether this KC-135 was equipped with parachutes. The investigation revealed that the Kyrgyzstan crash aircraft lacked them.
Diehl explained that the rationale for not mandating parachutes, at least during the 1980s and 1990s, involved the cost of maintenance and training. He noted that K-135s feature an escape hatch on the flight deck and a spoiler to assist crew members in clearing the fuselage during bailout.
A 2008 news release from an air refueling unit indicated that the Air Force was removing parachutes from KC-135s, citing statistics that remaining with the aircraft was safer, “particularly when operating over enemy territory.”
“Removing parachutes from military planes might seem strange, but KC-135s differ from other aircraft,” the release stated. “They rarely experience accidents, and the probability of a KC-135 crew member ever needing a parachute is very minimal.”
Diehl emphasized that it’s uncertain whether parachutes could have saved the crew over Iraq. However, he noted that the safe landing of the second aircraft indicates the collision might not have been catastrophic.
When questioned about whether the crashed plane carried parachutes, military officials only stated that the incident’s cause remains under investigation.
Regarding why the crashed KC-135 carried six personnel, Diehl suggested some might have been backup crew, considering the aircraft’s capability to remain airborne for extended periods.