Two US Navy pilots eject safely over Red Sea after fighter jet shot down in apparent friendly fire incident
F-18 fighter jets are seen on the flight deck of USS Gerald R. Ford in November 2022
(CNN) — Two US Navy pilots ejected safely after their fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea on Saturday in an apparent friendly fire incident, US Central Command said in a statement.
The pilots were recovered, and one of the crew members sustained minor injuries, according to initial assessments.
The aircraft, an F/A-18, was operating from the USS Harry S. Truman when it was “mistakenly 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 the waters of the Middle East one week ago.
A full investigation is underway. CENTCOM stressed the incident was not the result of hostile fire. The Iran-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen has repeatedly made false claims of striking US warships operating in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The US has maintained a near-constant presence of major Navy warships in the region since the start of the war in Gaza, as the Houthis have targeted ships in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, calling the attacks a response to Israel’s war against Hamas.
The apparent friendly fire incident comes the same day the US carried out airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility in the capital of 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 won’t stop striking Israel and its allies until a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
The F/A-18 incident also came 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 overnight into Saturday, Israeli authorities said, in a rare instance of a failed interception over the city.
More than a dozen people sustained minor injuries, according to emergency services, but no fatalities were reported.
CNN’s Lauren Izso, Edward Szekeres and Kareem El Damanhoury contributed to this report.
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