Two US Navy pilots shot down over the Red Sea

Two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea Sunday morning in “an apparent case of friendly fire,” the U.S. Army says. Both were recovered alive but “initial assessments indicate that one of the crew members suffered minor injuries”, explains the US Central Command (Centcom). “The incident was not the result of enemy fire and a full investigation is underway,” Centcom said. The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg “accidentally fired and hit the F/A-18 fighter plane” which was piloted by Navy pilots from another ship, the USS Harry S. Truman. The potentially disastrous mistake highlights the dangers of a mission the US has been involved in for more than a year, with Yemen’s Houthi rebels repeatedly targeting merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden which – they say – are connected to Israel.