Early Sunday morning, a U.S. Navy cruiser accidentally shot down a U.S. Navy fighter jet over the Red Sea, forcing the two pilots to eject. The Navy confirmed the incident on the 22nd, but two days later, Fox News reported a previously undisclosed detail: a second missile narrowly missed hitting a second fighter.
"It was a tanker crew [an F/A-18 fitted for in-flight refueling] returning to land on the carrier about 10 miles out," an undisclosed source told Fox. The aircraft was returning from a refueling mission in support of strike fighters operating over Yemen.
"[The pilots] recognized the missile was guiding and punched out about 3 seconds before the missile hit the jet," the source said. The pilots safely ejected and were retrieved, though one had minor injuries.
The second jet was also lining up to land and was several miles behind. The second missile narrowly missed it by as little as 100 feet, the source said; the Navy is investigating whether its guidance system had been shut off, and whether it was targeted at the second jet, according to Fox.
The Navy's initial report suggested that a single F/A-18 was involved in the incident, and that it had been "flying off the USS Harry S. Truman." The source told Fox that this was incorrect, and that two jets had been lining up for landing onto the USS Harry S. Truman.
The Navy confirmed that the USS Gettysburg - the carrier strike group's cruiser - was responsible for the missile launch.
The friendly-fire incident occurred after a UAV and missile barrage launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels, according to U.S. Central Command - a possible contributing factor in the misidentification of the incoming F/A-18s as an incoming threat. Air defense watchstanders in the tight confines of the Red Sea operating area have seconds to decide whether to launch countermeasures against Houthi antiship missiles.
