Five American service members were killed when a military aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean during a training exercise, the US European Command (EUCOM) said today.
EUCOM did not specify the type of plane or where it was flying from, but the United States has deployed a carrier strike group to the area as part of efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiralling into a regional conflict.
"During a routine air refuelling mission as part of military training, a US military aircraft carrying five service members suffered a mishap and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
"All five of the service members onboard the aircraft were killed," EUCOM said in a statement on the 10 November accident.
There have been multiple other crashes of US military aircraft in recent years, including an F-35 stealth warplane that went down in September, with the pilot able to eject.
In March, two US Army helicopters crashed during a nighttime training mission in Kentucky, killing all nine soldiers on board.
Four US Marines were killed during NATO exercises in Norway last year when their V-22B Osprey aircraft went down.
And in 2021, two US Navy pilots ejected from their T-45C Goshawk jet shortly before it crashed during a training exercise near Fort Worth, Texas.
