KC135 crash in Iraq

[BrettMRC]

I can't recall an incident similar to this, but it's looking like a mid-air collision with the tanker coming off far worse.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/12/middleeast/us-a...

[airbusA346]

Apparently this is the other aircraft involved.

[BrettMRC]

Crikey, can only imagine what that did to the other plane - presumably sliced off a wing section or control surface?

[Austin Prefect]

Both tankers then.

[DD3566]

Easy for a mid air collision to happen if it was one KC-135 refueling another, this video shows how quickly it can go south when in such close proximity!

[StephenP]

No idea if it is but I've always thought basket/drogue must be a much safer system than getting an aircraft close enough to be able to poke a tube in to a little hole at such a short distance. The latter seems to leave little room for error/turbulence/rapid movement of one aircraft relative to the other.

[gotoPzero]

Whats weird is how did the top of the tail strike the other aircraft. If we saw damage to either the top front above the cockpit or damage to the boom or area below the boom then ok, but how the hell did they do that?!

[Earthdweller]

gotoPzero said:

Whats weird is how did the top of the tail strike the other aircraft. If we saw damage to either the top front above the cockpit or damage to the boom or area below the boom then ok, but how the hell did they do that?!

Probably fatigue, just pure tiredness

Those crews have been working insane hours for weeks

Easy to make a mistake when you're knackered

[airbusA346]

CENTCOM have now confirmed all 6 crewmembers have died.

[hidetheelephants]

gotoPzero said:

Whats weird is how did the top of the tail strike the other aircraft. If we saw damage to either the top front above the cockpit or damage to the boom or area below the boom then ok, but how the hell did they do that?!

Loss of speed control through some kind of failure; autopilot develops a fault slowing the refuelling aircraft or accelerating the receiving aircraft(less likely, I don't suppose a KC135 accelerates very fast) and the pilot not noticing quickly enough through fatigue, then the receiving aircraft dives out of the way and the tail strikes the boom? Also possibly just loss of situational awareness by either pilot, but that seems less likely. The collision has taken away half the vertical stabiliser so not a glancing blow; perhaps it has struck the fuselage of the refuelling aircraft as well as the boom, given the other aircraft has crashed it seems likely.

[gotoPzero]

Its certainly a strange one. Those booms can retract incredibly quickly when you press the right button or the computer decides nope.

Part of me wonders if they just had a mid air in the stack and were not actually trying to tank at the time.

[hidetheelephants]

Maybe more will be revealed by the wreckage of the other aircraft, it's not clear what's happened.

[CLK-GTR]

DD3566 said:

Easy for a mid air collision to happen if it was one KC-135 refueling another, this video shows how quickly it can go south when in such close proximity!

Theres only a handful that can receive fuel and neither of these were that variant, so no idea what they were doing so close together.

[T-bagger]

One of the many, many tragedies in war. RIP the crew.

[hidetheelephants]

C4 news just reported that iranian nutters in Iraq are claiming to have shot it down, which seems implausible on the available evidence.

[HJG]

I am really surprised about how many of these are in the air at any one time. All available to see on Flightradar24.

[gt40steve]

T-bagger said:

One of the many, many tragedies in war. RIP the crew.

Well said.

[Austin Prefect]

There are suggestions on social media that it was an almost head on collision.

[Stick Legs]

https://youtu.be/Q6fXLaCyjPk?si=xV02y3RL4J6iP4NH

Interesting.

Very sad that they normally fly with 3 but had a crew of 6 for in theatre familiarisation.

[gotoPzero]

Echos of GOL 1907 vs a biz jet in Brazil.