Two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea on Sunday in “an apparent case of friendly fire”, the US military said.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Sunday they had “targeted” aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman a day earlier in an operation that led to “shooting down an F-18 aircraft” and thwarting “American-British aggression” against Yemen.
United States Central Command (Centcom) said both US pilots were recovered alive, but “initial assessments indicate that one of the crew members sustained minor injuries”.
The incident “was not the result of hostile fire and a full investigation is under way”, Centcom said.
The potentially disastrous mistake underscores the dangers of a mission the United States has been involved in for more than a year to counter Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
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The Houthis have repeatedly targeted merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, waterways vital to global trade.
United States Central Command said the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg “mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18 Hornet” fighter aircraft, which Navy pilots had flown off the USS Harry S. Truman.
The incident has raised fresh concerns about operational coordination in high-risk zones where multiple threats are present. Military officials indicated that an initial review suggests the misidentification occurred during heightened alert conditions linked to ongoing Houthi attacks in the region. Both pilots were reported to have ejected safely and were later recovered, sustaining only minor injuries.
Authorities have launched a comprehensive investigation to determine the exact cause of the error and to prevent similar occurrences, as tensions continue to escalate along one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors.
