- The American missile cruiser Gettysburg mistakenly fires on a fighter.
- Two F/A-18 Hornet pilots rescued from downed plane.
- A pilot suffers minor injuries in a “friendly fire” incident.
The US military said it mistakenly shot down one of its own fighter jets over the Red Sea early Sunday, forcing both pilots to eject.
Both were rescued, one of them with minor injuries, after the “apparent case of friendly fire,” which is being investigated, the US Central Command said in a statement.
The fighter was an F/A-18 Hornet flying from the aircraft carrier Harry S Truman.
One of the carrier's escort ships, the missile cruiser Gettysburg, “mistakenly fired and hit” the plane, according to the statement.
The Red Sea has been a hotbed of military activity for more than a year as U.S. forces battle Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi fighters who have carried out attacks on shipping in the region.
The US military said it had fired at Houthi drones and missiles over the Red Sea on Saturday and had attacked command and control and missile storage sites in Sanaa.
