2 Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in ‘friendly fire’ incident: Military
The USS Gettysburg on June 29, 2010. Via Chris Jackson/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Two U.S. Navy pilots ejected safely over the Red Sea after their F/A-18 fighter aircraft was mistakenly shot down early Sunday in what military officials are calling “an apparent case of friendly fire.”
One of the pilots has minor injuries, according to a news release from U.S. Central Command.
The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the aircraft, that was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman, according to the news release.
The military said a full investigation is underway.
The U.S. Navy has been patrolling the region for over a year to combat ongoing attacks on commercial ships from the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
Several hours earlier, the military said U.S forces conducted precision airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility used by the Houthis and shot down multiple uncrewed aerial vehicles and an anti-ship cruise missile.
That operation involved the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy and included F/A-18 aircraft.
(GAZA CITY) — Alma Ja’arour is not like most children her age. Instead of talking about school and friends, her days are filled with memories of the family she lost and the uncertainty of her future after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement on Jan. 15.
Alma, who is 12 years old, is the sole survivor of her family after her home was bombed in December 2023 in Gaza City.
Soon, she will return — not to the home she once knew, but to a graveyard where her parents and siblings rest.
“My mother, father, and brothers are all buried in one grave in our home in Gaza City,” she told ABC News. “I want to see them, say goodbye. But what will I do after that? There is no home to return to, no one waiting for me.”
After 15 months of living in displacement camps because of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Alma and others like her will be allowed to return to northern Gaza on Saturday.
But for Alma, returning without her family is difficult, she told ABC News.
Alma’s story is one of countless others unfolding across Gaza, where children like her face unimaginable challenges. The ongoing conflict has left over 17,000 children separated from their parents, according to UNICEF.
Amid the challenges Alma has faced, she has one wish.
“I want to make my parents proud of me in heaven,” Alma told ABC News.
Her hope is to become a doctor, fulfilling a desire that her late father always encouraged, she said.
“Through education, I can achieve my goals. I will work hard to make my father proud,” Alma added.
Alma has been living in a tent at the Al-Barakah Orphanage Camp in Khan Younis.
Mahmoud Kalakh, the camp’s director, said the children in the orphanage display resilience, despite the tragedy around them.
“These children carry the weight of tragedy, yet they still dream of a better future,” he said. “Our role is to provide them with the support they need to heal and rebuild their lives.”
UNICEF and other humanitarian organizations have called for urgent support for children like Alma. The loss of family, education and basic necessities has created a crisis that requires immediate global attention, global aid organizations say.
“Children are the most vulnerable in conflicts,” a UNICEF spokesperson said. “We must ensure they have the resources and care they need to survive and thrive.”
(SEOUL) — The final four minutes of flight recordings before a Jeju Air flight crashed into an embankment at the end of a runway in South Korea are missing, a preliminary report into the investigation of the crash that left 179 people dead said.
Recordings from both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder are missing, according to the report released Monday.
The crash occurred at Muan International Airport on Dec. 29, 2024. There were a total of 175 passengers and six crew members aboard the Boeing 737, which had taken off from Bangkok, Thailand.
There were two survivors of the crash, both crew members, one man and one woman, according to officials at the time.
The preliminary report into the deadly crash was released on Monday by the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.
Both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder recordings from the flight stopped minutes before the airplane hit the concrete structure, or embankment, at the end of the runway at the Muan International Airport, according to the report.
The last four minutes and seven seconds of the recordings before the plane crashed are missing, the preliminary report stated.
Right before the end of the recording, the air traffic control tower advised the airplane to be “cautious of bird activity” at 08:57:50, the preliminary report says.
The CVR and FDR recordings stopped at 08:58:50. The airplane hit the embankment at 09:02:57, the report says.
The pilots of the Jeju Air flight identified a group of birds while approaching the runway and “during a go-around” and feathers and bird blood stains were found on both of the engines of the plane, the preliminary report said.
“Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) will tear down the engines, examine components in depth, analyze CVR/FDR and ATC data, and investigate the embankment, localizers, and bird strike evidence. These all-out investigation activities aim to determine the accurate cause of the accident,” the preliminary report said.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — A 33-year-old flight attendant, one of just two survivors of the Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea that killed 179 people, is awake and talking to medical staff, according to a hospital official.
The survivor, who was only identified by his surname Lee, told doctors he had “already been rescued” when he regained consciousness following Sunday’s fiery crash at the Muan International Airport, Ju Woong, director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, said during a news conference on Monday.
Lee and another flight attendant on Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, who was identified by her surname Koo, were the only ones aboard the aircraft to live through what authorities said was South Korea’s deadliest plane crash in decades and one of the worst in aviation history.
The 25-year-old Koo is reportedly in stable condition at a different hospital than the one where Lee is being treated. Koo suffered injuries to her ankle and head, medical staff at the hospital told the Yonhap News Agency. The medical staff treating her declined to answer further questions about her condition.
Ju said Lee is being treated in the intensive care unit for multiple fractures.
He said Lee is “fully able to communicate.”
“There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such,” Ju said.
The hospital director said Lee is under special care due to the possibility of total paralysis.
Ju said he did not question Lee about the details of the crash, saying he didn’t believe it would be helpful with the patient’s recovery.
Lee was initially taken to a hospital in Mokpo before being transferred to the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital.
The crash unfolded just before 9 a.m. local time on Sunday at the Muan International Airport after the air traffic control tower gave the flight crew permission to land on a south-to-north runway, according to an official timeline by the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.
Three minutes later, the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the transport ministry said. About two minutes after that warning, a pilot sent a distress signal, saying, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, bird strike, bird strike, going around,” the ministry said.
The plane ascended and made a 180-degree turn before descending from the north side, crash-landing and slamming into a wall at 9:03 a.m., the ministry said.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall and burst into flames, officials said. A total of 181 people were onboard.
The flight had originated before dawn Sunday at the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracker.
An official cause of the crash is under investigation by South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.
