Two US Navy pilots eject safely over Red Sea after fighter jet shot down in apparent friendly fire incident

CNN
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Two US Navy pilots ejected safely after their fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea on Saturday in an apparently friendly fire incident, US Central Command said in a statement.

The pilots were rescued and one of the crew members sustained minor injuries, according to initial assessments.

The plane, an F/A-18, was operating from the USS Harry S. Truman when it was “erroneously fired upon” by the USS Gettysburg, CENTCOM said. The USS Gettysburg, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, is part of the Truman carrier strike group, which entered Middle Eastern waters a week ago.

A full investigation is underway. CENTCOM emphasized that the incident was not the result of hostile fire. The Iran-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen has repeatedly made false claims of attacking US warships operating in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The US has maintained an almost constant presence of large naval warships in the region since the start of the war in Gaza, as the Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, calling the attacks a response to Israel’s war against Hamas .

The apparently friendly fire incident comes on the same day the US carried out airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting a missile depot and a command-and-control facility in the capital Sana’a. The US also shot down one-way attack drones and an anti-ship cruise missile, according to CENTCOM.

The strikes on the Iran-backed rebel group involved the use of Navy F/A-18 fighter jets, as well as US Air Force assets, CENTCOM said.

According to two US military officials, the downed fighter jet was not part of the strikes in Yemen.

The Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous regions, say they will not stop attacking Israel and its allies until a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.

The F/A-18 incident also came on the same day Houthi forces in Yemen said they fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at an Israeli military target in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa area. The missile fired from Yemen hit Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Israeli authorities said, in a rare case of a failed intercept over the city.

More than a dozen people suffered minor injuries, according to emergency services, but no deaths were reported.

CNN’s Lauren Izso, Edward Szekeres and Kareem El Damanhoury contributed to this report.