A U.S. military aircraft crashed in the eastern Mediterranean after suffering a mishap during a training exercise Friday evening, U.S. European Command said in a statement Saturday.
The command did not provide further details about where in the region the plane went down, whether over land or water.
It’s also unclear what type of aircraft was involved, how many people were aboard or whether anyone was injured or killed.
“Out of respect for the families affected, we will not release further information on the personnel involved at this time,” the command said.
“We can definitively say that the aircraft sortie was purely related to training and there are no indications of hostile activity,” it added.
The military is investigating the cause of the mishap.
The Pentagon has rushed thousands of American troops to the Middle East as war unfolds between U.S. ally Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the neighboring Gaza Strip.
Among those forces are two Navy carrier strike groups stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, U.S. surveillance aircraft gathering intelligence off of the Israeli coast and others spread around the region.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will be updated as further details are released.
Rachel Cohen is the editor of Air Force Times. She joined the publication as its senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), Air and Space Forces Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy and elsewhere.
