All 6 U.S. crew members killed after refueling plane crashes in Iraq

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

March 13, 2026, 5:47 AM EDT / Updated March 13, 2026, 10:27 AM EDT


All six U.S. crew members have been confirmed dead after their military refueling plane crashed in Iraq while taking part in Iran war operations, the U.S. military said Friday.

U.S. Central Command said in a post on X early Friday that the KC-135 plane went down at approximately 2 p.m. ET Thursday in western Iraq, with four crew members initially confirmed dead. The statement said that "rescue efforts continue."

In a subsequent post, CENTCOM confirmed that all six crew members "are now confirmed deceased."

"The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire," CENTCOM said. It said earlier that two aircraft were involved in the incident and that one landed safely.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-refueling-plane-crashes-iraq-iran-war-crew-members-killed-rcna263315

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Just breaking.

REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143631643

[dem4decades]

1. We'll never know the truth, this Administration is incapable of being truthful.

[Blues Heron]

2. killed to protect a pedophile

[bucolic_frolic]

3. In the UK, Historian Mark Felton found parts of WWII still classified

No reason to think this Trump government will improve transparency in the least little bit

[melm00se]

16. When I was writing my

thesis, I came across documents regarding cryptography that were still classified almost 80 years after the fact.

Some were quickly declassified, but others I never did get a response to my declassification requests.

[Ponietz]

4. Maybe if genius MF47 had some bases in Afghanistan this wouldn't have happened

[AverageOldGuy]

5. Mid-air collision

Earlier reports say two tankers were operating together, one returned “safely” and landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel the second crashed killing six-person crew. The delay in confirming was (1) find the crash site then (2) dig out charred remains. Remember, these things carry 30,000 gallons of jet fuel.

Somewhere on the net I saw photos of the second aircraft with about half of its vertical stabilizer missing —- that’s the big piece sticking up from the tail, which contains the rudder. Good bit of flying by the pilot to go from over Iraq to Israel with little or no rudder.

[InstantGratification]

6. I speculated on that in another thread:

When I was stationed at Nellis AFB in Nevada

We deployed a squadron of F-16s from there to Ramstein AB in Germany. We took sixteen F-16s, divided into groups of 4. We maintainers and the support equipment were loaded onto four KC-10 tankers. The aircraft flew non stop to Germany with our fighters refueling as needed from the tankers. Because of the length of the flight the tankers themselves were refueled several times by other tankers that were staged along the route.

If it wasn't friendly or enemy fire that took that tanker down, what did? Other reporting mentioned that another aircraft was involved in the same incident but that aircraft landed ok. Purely speculation on my part, but my initial thought was "mid-air collision?" I wonder if a fighter attached to the refueling boom contacted the tail and damaged flight control surfaces. Or possibly it was refueling another tanker and they bumped.

edited to add link:

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-iran-war-is-that-a-damaged-tail-us-kc-135-tanker-visuals-fuel-midair-collision-buzz-11209071

[Bluetus]

11. It is almost 100% certain that the collision was with another plane involved in the refueling operation

Last edited Fri Mar 13, 2026, 01:50 PM - Edit history (2)

We can safely assume that the tanker was in the air over "friendly" Iraq in order to top off other fighters/bombers that would be entering Iran. I mean, why else would a tanker be in the air over Iraq?

And this scenario explains why the Pentagon was able to rule out enemy fire so quickly. There were undoubtedly other aircraft in that attack group who witnessed the accident. Not a lot of questions what happened, other than the exact sequence of the contact.

I don't know anything about the surviving aircraft. It was either an escort plane or else a plane being refueled. Can anybody tell from the pictures of the surviving plane on the ground? Is this a plane that can be refueled in flight?

================

On edit, the other aircraft was another tanker. That's a serious F-up. No way two tankers should be within a half mile of each other, especially in friendly airspace.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-iran-war-is-that-a-damaged-tail-us-kc-135-tanker-visuals-fuel-midair-collision-buzz-11209071

[InstantGratification]

18. Correct, tankers are not normally that close

The exception to that is when they refuel each other. As I said in my first reply, I was once on a non-stop flight from Nellis AFB, NV to Ramstein AB, Germany, our KC-10 tanker had 4 F-16 fighters flying in formation with us. They refueled off of us about every 90 minutes. Our tanker refueled off of other tankers 3 times during the roughly 13 hour flight. I got to watch our fighters refueling off of us from the boom operators position. I wish I could have sat in the cockpit to watch us refuel from the other tankers.

[Bluetus]

22. A question about the tanker-on-tanker scenario

It seems pretty obvious that there were two tankers in the same airspace and they collided.

Considering we have several bases in the area, I don't really understand why there would be a need for one tanker to fuel another one. Why wouldn't the empty tanker just land and take on a new load of fuel?

That's just my ignorance / curiosity. There are probably tactical reasons why this was the way to go. SO let me assume it was indeed a case of one tanker fueling the other. We know that the surviving plane had damage on the vertical stabilizer. It clearly contacted the doomed plane at the top of the stabilizer.

Would this imply that the surviving plane was in the lower position, iow, the plane receiving the fuel (or getting into position to receive the fuel)? I am trying to visualize how this could have happened, and what part of the doomed plan was struck in such a way as to cause it to go out of control. I ask because it did not appear that the stabilizer on the surviving plan was damaged that heavily.

Also, is it safe to say these large planes do no have ejection systems?

[InstantGratification]

23. I could give you wild speculation, not much else

I was in the fighter world in my time in aircraft maintenance. I can tell you things I saw as an outsider, but I wasn't an operator in that space, so I don't know the operational details as an insider would. I'm only able to tell the story I told because I was part of the cargo being transported and commenting on what I saw.

One thing to note: The KC-135 normally has a crew of 3, the pilot, the copilot and the boom operator. The pilots are officers and the boom operator is an enlisted member. This aircraft had 6 onboard. They released the names and ranks of the victims and there are four officers and 2 enlisted among them.

That suggests 2 full crews onboard, which in turn suggests either a long distance flight (which seems less likely to me) or a long duration flight in the refueling area. Neither of those add up to me. I can't imagine a reason to fly a tanker from far away to refuel another tanker. In the second scenario, the one with 2 crews onboard would be the one being refueled because it was staying on station longer.. As you speculated, that would have made it the one in the lower position being refueled.

A thought occurred to me: The concentration level required for the precision formation flying during refueling is intense and probably exhausting. Since they are supporting so many combat aircraft and needing to stay on station for long periods of time, maybe they all have 2 aircrews onboard so they can swap out periodically to rest? Like I said, I never worked in the tanker world, so I don't even know if that is a thing.

Correct, no ejection seats on any cargo or tanker aircraft that I ever saw. I would guess that is because they are frequently transporting people and they wouldn't be able to eject. I would also add that the only parachutes I ever saw were army troops that were going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

[LeftInTX]

8. It's amazing that the other plane survived. I saw the supposed image of the other plane and it looked pretty good!

I'm like, "What? How?" Anyway, I'm glad it made it....

However, I've never seen a mid-air colliision where the other plane looked more or less like it was in a drivable car accident.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. The number is now 13.

[wnylib]

10. 14

[Baitball Blogger]

12. 7 from the first strike in Kuwait and this 6.

I must have missed one.

[wnylib]

13. Yes, you missed one, but you are not alone on that.

Half the media are misreporting the number, too.

In that first group of 7, there were also several who were wounded, some critically. One of those wounded later died, raising the number to 8.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. They did underreport it.

It was probably Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M. Marzan, 54.

Before him was Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky. The seventh.

[Initech]

9. Everything Trump touches.

[agingdem]

15. my granddaughter called her mother sobbing...

a few weeks ago she and her fiancé were guests at their friends wedding...they were seated next to the bride's sister and brother-in-law..the young man was an Air Force pilot..his wife was just notified that he was one of the six crew members killed...he was the father of 3 children under 6...

Trump is a monster...

[RetiredParatrooper]

17. There was no way they would have survived

Air-refueling is very dangerous, as can bee seen in the pictures in the attached article. On one airborne operation (training) I was on, we flew out over the Atlantic to mee some tankers for the C-141's aircrew to practice refueling. You could hear the refueling probe being slid into the top of the Starlifter. When it was done, we flew back over NC and jumped on to Sicily DZ on Fort Bragg.

[JohnnyRingo]

19. A lot of people don't realize in every air war more planes have been lost to accidents than combat

Including Vietnam and the more recent actions.
It's the price to pay for operating complex and dangerous aircraft in a war zone. A lot can go wrong with leading technology, even pilot error and friendly fire.

I'm not excusing the man who pressed these brave professionals into hazardous duty, just pointing out more will probably be coming. If we're allowed to know. My heart goes out to those who have to sacrifice themselves for one deranged man. Sad.

[Warpy]

20. Sounds like exhausted -pilot error

that had one of the aircraft flying at the wrong altitude. It's a miracle the other aircraft was able to limp back and land safely

RIP and thank you to all who died.

[S/V Loner]

21. There are no parachutes on a KC-135 so the plane...

could carry another 800lbs. of fuel. Insanity.