Two US Navy Pilots Shot Down In Red Sea 'Friendly Fire' Incident, Recovered Alive

Two United States Navy pilots were shot down on Sunday (22 December) over the Red Sea in what the US military described as a "friendly fire" incident.

The pilots were recovered alive, though one sustained minor injuries.

The incident highlights the increasing peril in the Red Sea corridor, a region fraught with attacks on shipping by Yemen's Houthi rebels over the past year, despite patrols by US and European military coalitions.

At the time of the incident, the US military had been conducting airstrikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels.

"The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18, which was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman," Central Command said in a statement, news agency AP reported.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the Houthis have attacked around 100 merchant vessels using missiles and drones.

On Saturday (21 December), US military said that Centcom forces conducted precision airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated by Iran-backed Houthis within Houthi-controlled territory in Sana’a, Yemen.

"Centcom forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden," the US military said.

During the operation, Centcom forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea, it added.

The operation involved US Air Force and US Navy assets, including F/A-18s.

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