PICTURED: Two airmen killed when their surveillance plane crashed in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan
- Victims were identified as Lt. Col. Paul K. Voss, 46, of Yigo, Guam, and Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf, 30, of Hudson, New Hampshire
- Remains of the airmen were recovered from the crash site in Ghazni province
- Taliban and other Middle East factions claimed the plane had been shot down
- But the Pentagon says the most likely cause was the weather in the area
The Pentagon on Wednesday released the names of two Air Force officers killed in the crash of their Bombardier E-11A electronic surveillance plane in Afghanistan.
They were identified as Lt. Col. Paul K. Voss, 46, of Yigo, Guam, and Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf, 30, of Hudson, New Hampshire.
Voss was assigned to Air Combat Command headquarters at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Phaneuf was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
Lt. Col. Paul K. Voss, 46, (left) of Yigo, Guam, and Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf, 30, (right) of Hudson, New Hampshire were killed when their surveillance plane crashed in Afghanistan
The cause of Monday’s crash is under investigation, but officials have said there is no indication the plane was downed by hostile action.
‘I’m pretty confident there was no enemy action involved. Aircraft mishaps happen,’ Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Wednesday at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
The remains of the two airmen were recovered from the crash site in Ghazni province by American forces on Tuesday.
McKenzie said that as far as he knows, the U.S. troops did not meet any resistance going to the site.
The cause of Monday’s crash is under investigation, but officials have said there is no indication the plane was downed by hostile action
‘The main resistance was from the weather, which was really significant back there,’ he said, adding that ‘appropriate precautions’ were taken in moving the recovery team to the site ‘because the last thing you want to do is have another mishap or have other people lose their lives in attempt to get up there.’
The Taliban and other extremists factions in the Middle East had claimed the plane had been shot down.
Among other spurious reports across Farsi channels was that up to 100 had died amid fanatical claims of retribution for the US strike on Soleimani in Baghdad earlier this month.
There were also wild claims that Michael D’Andrea, the CIA chief responsible for the attack that killed Soleimani, was on the plane and died in the crash.
Iranian propaganda agency, Mehr News, cited the pro-Kremlin website Veterans Today, which quoted Russian intelligence sources claiming D’Andrea had been killed and vital intelligence aboard the jet seized.
It claimed that the jet was not a standard US communications plane, but D’Andrea’s mobile command centre and was also carrying other high-ranking operatives.
D’Andrea’s name began to crop up frequently across Farsi news sites in the wake of the US drone strike which killed Soleimani.
According to Iran’s Tasnim agency – which has strong links to the IRGC – ‘D’Andrea is the most prominent figure in the US CIA in the Middle East.’
Taliban and other extremists factions in the Middle East had claimed the plane had been shot down. Among other spurious reports across Farsi channels was that up to 100 had died amid fanatical claims of retribution for the US strike on Soleimani in Baghdad earlier this month
The remains of the two airmen were recovered from the crash site in Ghazni province by American forces on Tuesday