KC-135 tanker involved in Epic Fury goes down in Iraq: CENTCOM

[vanessa_ca]

Source: Breaking Defense



WASHINGTON — A US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker air refueler crashed in Iraq due to an “incident” that “occurred in friendly airspace,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement late Thursday.

Casualties and circumstances surrounding the crash are not immediately clear. According to CENTCOM, the incident was “not due to hostile or friendly fire” and occurred during Operation Epic Fury, the US military’s name for the war against Iran.

Three US F-15s were recently shot down over Kuwait in a friendly fire incident, but all pilots involved ejected safely. The Stratotanker, however, does not have ejection seats. CENTCOM said “rescue efforts are ongoing.”

Two aircraft were apparently involved in events that precipitated the tanker’s crash, though it’s not clear if it occurred amid a refueling mission. The other aircraft “landed safely” according to CENTCOM, which did not describe the aircraft in question.

Read more: https://breakingdefense.com/2026/03/kc-135-tanker-involved-in-epic-fury-goes-down-in-iraq-centcom/

[msongs]

1. based on the 707. these ancient craft must be heck to maintain nt

[Irish_Dem]

3. I know, my Dad was flying them in Viet Nam.

Many decades ago.

I am surprised they still fly them.

[DenaliDemocrat]

51. They fly out of Seymour Johnston AFB

And are all retro fitted with modern equipment. I believe they are built on a 737 frame but I could be remembering incorrectly.

[Irish_Dem]

54. I think it is a Boeing 707 frame.

I’m not sure.

During the Vietnam war they were stationed in a number of locations in the far east.

[Puppyjive]

18. I was an AWACS crewmember

They have retired the jets. There are a handful still in operation. I feel sick to my stomach over this.

[Angleae]

44. Actually it's based on a dash 80. The KC-135 was about a year ahead of the 707.

[OAITW r.2.0]

45. But no consideration for crew viability?

[RoseTrellis]

49. None

No tankers or cargo planes have ever had ejection seats.

[KT2000]

52. Thank you!

That was my Dad's plane (Boeing engineer) from its beginning until 1973 and everyone gets it wrong. People think the KC-135 was adapted from the 707. I love watching the takeoff videos of that plane - the loud ones!

[Irish_Dem]

2. Oh no....

Last edited Thu Mar 12, 2026, 07:58 PM - Edit history (1)

My USAF Dad flew these in Viet Nam.
KC 135.

Best squadron in the USAF.

The crew got out here but where are they?

[vanessa_ca]

6. Not good. A second KC 135 "landed safely in Israel"

CBS News reported that a second KC-135 safely landed in Israel after declaring an emergency earlier on Thursday.

CENTCOM assured that the incident occured in friendly airspace, and was not due to hostile or friendly fire.

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-889839

It was reported a bit differently at first

Link to tweet

/photo/1

[Irish_Dem]

14. Crew of six.

Pilot, co-pilot, maybe navigator, boom operator, maybe some medical staff.
RN's or med techs?

IDK.

The plane is lost?

Air Force families know this is a not a good statement from the brass.
It is not good when the USAF loses track of an airplane.

[Captain Zero]

56. There are lots of Iranian drones moving thru that

"Friendly Airspace".

They just don't want to admit they are losing aircraft.

[vanessa_ca]

58. When will they realize that it's more humiliating to claim combat losses are accidents

than to just admit they've suffered combat losses? Accidents imply our military is poorly trained and poorly commanded.

[OAITW r.2.0]

4. In flight refueling has inherent risks.

Aviation fuel is hi-octane fluid...Maybe some sparking during the process during the refuel process.

[Prairie Gates]

9. It's weird that both affected planes were refuelers

When I first heard the story I assumed that there has been some kind of problem with the refueling itself, but if they are both KC-135s, I don't get it. Surely they weren't refueling each other.

[2naSalit]

12. That is odd...

But I will say that I have witnessed training events where refueling tankers were working in tandem such that they were not all that far apart as they acted as a two pump fuel station. I don;t know what their actual practices are but I can imagine that safety measures are being slimmed down for everything related to operations ordered by the clowns in DC.

[tonekat]

24. I saw two of the Pegasus tankers very close

It was in 2024, I saw them coming when I was looking at my flight software. They weren't even following a refueling route, and the software said they were 25 feet apart vertically. They looked like one plane with two sets of wings from my backyard.

[2naSalit]

25. That's what I saw...

At one point. For some reason, I assume a training session, but they weren't extremely far up, I heard them coming long before they crossed the valley. I watched them go over once and then again about two hours later, I was out working a field on a farm so that was in 2019.

[OAITW r.2.0]

13. I didn't know that it involved 2 KC-135 tankers. That's really crazy. I have to believe each tanker has at least

a 10 mile separation radius around their refuel sector flightpath.

[Prairie Gates]

20. CENTCOM's only saying two aircraft

Some sources I saw said the plane that landed safely was also a KC 135 but I'm not sure that's accurate and I agree that it would be very weird if so.

[OAITW r.2.0]

21. I would think mid-air refueling tankers are closely watched to avoid this very situation.

[Prairie Gates]

32. Pic downthread would seem to confirm that both the crashed aircraft and the safely landed one

were both KC-135s.

[OAITW r.2.0]

35. Why would that happen?

It's not pilot error, IMHO. Whatever audiotapes are available, probably won't get released. So we will never know what transpired. Have our comms been compromised?

All I can say is....Trump/Putin/Xi are all in on world domination, Where the fuck is 007?

[2naSalit]

11. Unlikely...

All metal parts involved in fuel handling is either brass or aluminum because of the issue of sparks, this is true of ground transport as well as aircraft. Probably stricter requirements for aircraft since AVgas is so volatile.

[OAITW r.2.0]

16. I didn't know all the facts when I posted.

Pre-factual speculation on my part.

[2naSalit]

22. It's a reasonable one but...

Having been in the petroleum transport business for a short spell, I can attest that it is fact. Aluminum dust is nasty stuff but you can't get it to spark if all it touches it aluminum or brass. Same with brass.

[OAITW r.2.0]

37. True story....worked at a gas bottling plant in Portland, Maine for 8 months, We bottled from bulk,.

I was a sales prospect that didn't pan out. Mutual agreement, actually.

[RoseTrellis]

47. Not avgas

Tankers don’t carry avgas.
Also, sometime in the 90s, the airforce transitioned from JP-4 to JP-8, which is even less flammable and volatile.

[2naSalit]

55. That was after my time...

So thanks for the correction. AVgas was some nasty shit, I hated dealing with it.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

33. I remember when one blew up over Illinois in 1982

Our neighbor’s kid was in the refueling unit but not on the plane.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Just got a Guardian breaking news banner

Rescue effort under way as US military refueling plane crashes in Iraq

[Prairie Gates]

7. I'm going to call this one: add three to the KIA tally

On edit: there's a three-person crew for this aircraft, not six.

[vanessa_ca]

10. I hope not, but I fear you're right -eom

[CentralMass]

8. Anything approved for news by this administration is suspect

[mn9driver]

15. No ejection seats on this aircraft.

If this was a crash, the crew almost certainly perished.

It sounds like two KC135’s and two fighter aircraft were performing aerial refueling when some sort of collision occurred resulting in damage, with the loss of one of the 135’s. It doesn’t seem like this was due to hostile action, but we shall see…

[OAITW r.2.0]

17. Given the danger of this flight requirement....seems like ejection seats for the pilots and the

Last edited Thu Mar 12, 2026, 09:11 PM - Edit history (1)

refueler specialist is a no-brainer.

[2naSalit]

23. Might be a side door...

They might have used, like you see jumpers exit on teevee.

Or not.

[OAITW r.2.0]

26. Pretty doubtful. Once they are locked into their seat, given their situation...not a lot of time to figure a quick exit

in a catastrophic event hence......ejection seat systems. Logically, that should have been part of the redesign mods to make the frame into a tanker.

[2naSalit]

27. Hmm...

I've never been on one of these so I couldn't say, they're pretty big so I can't really think of a quick exit location. But you're right, there should have been some way for them to exit.

[OAITW r.2.0]

29. Let's say you lose a wing or tail at 35,000 ft, flying at 450mph..

You aren't exiting your seat., normally.

[vanessa_ca]

36. They don't even have parachutes anymore

Link to tweet

That poor crew! And their families!

[OAITW r.2.0]

38. So, help me understand. Fighter pilots need ejection support,,,,but tanker pilots don't?

Thinking about this....for the 1st time. really....KC-135 crews are kinda fucked. Pilots got to fly and navigate, refueler refuels. Not a whole lot of EW awareness, And no chance if you get a hypersonic missile locked on.

[vanessa_ca]

39. That's my logical understanding, but I can't add anything

because I know little about military stuff.

[OAITW r.2.0]

41. While I am a pilot....

With 17whole hours in the left seat on a Cessna 172, I am clueless as well.

[vanessa_ca]

43. Compared to 0 hours in no seat of any Cessna (me) lol

[RoseTrellis]

48. Not just tankers.

Only fighters and fighter trainers and bombers have ejection seats.
Transport planes and tankers have never been designed to have ejection seats.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

53. mission scope is different, and structure wise its very different

Fighters and bombers are expected to have to spend a lot of time in contested airspace and operate under conditions where any emergency turns catastrophic basically instantly. Cargo planes and tankers rarely fly in contested airspace and if they do, they usually are under escort. For their normal missions, emergencies aren't usually catastrophic immediately, they are usually emergencies that happen over minutes and allow them to try to handle it while still in the air. The actual plane designs themselves is the other issue.Cargo planes can have multiple decks with personnel on each. Some have crew moving around a lot. They would need a different escape method. Having a single one, like simply bailing out, simplifies things. Ejection seats means the entire structure needs to be designed around it, its not something that can easily be retrofitted into existing designs. And the weight of the systems is the other issue, which is kind of important for cargo and tankers. Every pound of weight tied to ejection systems is less cargo and fuel they can carry every trip. And for planes that are expected to have a very low need for such systems, the trade off isnt worth it. Everything with the military has compromises between efficiency, safety, mission effectiveness, and cost. And mission effectiveness usually takes priority.

[OAITW r.2.0]

59. Don'tcha think Pilots in tanker have exposure?

I think if they eat a missile. they are fucked...unless there is an ejection strategy.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

60. Their mission scope generally doesnt have them exposed to enemy aircraft

They stick to controlled airspace further back from the front. Their exposure to missiles is supposed to be minimal, so escape methods beyond parachutes aren't considered important enough. The fuel they can carry to refuel the fighters and bombers is deemed a more important use of weight and space. Mission scope sets the priorities and ejection systems are not one for tankers and cargo aircraft because of the environment they are designed to operate in. Is it a risk? Definitely, but its been deemed an acceptable risk.

[OAITW r.2.0]

61. Seems like missile technology has evolved over the years.

If nothing else, Ukraine has learned to take out the fuel supply chain before delivering their product. Obviously drones aren't the issue....but hpersonic missiles ought to be a concern.

I know there's not much that can be done on present fleet ejection limitations, but perhaps thought can be given to crew ejections systems going forward. The human /experience becomes pretty damn import assets when the moment comes that computers calculate that the impact will be certain. Seconds after crew ejection, computer puts the tanker down/away from the crews. Maybe more future design toward section type pod injection that really protects the crew.

[Marcuse]

19. The Epstein Administration will be claiming the media is trying to make it look bad.

At least the cartoon president doffed his red hat.

[Maninacan]

28. Fatigue

Apparently can have 1 crew to monitor fatigue , I don't know how that is done in flight.

[vanessa_ca]

30. Pic of KC-135 after landing in Tel Aviv with nearly half of its vertical stabilizer torn away

Link to tweet

[Prairie Gates]

31. Mid-air collision between two KC-135s is the claim from CENTCOM, then

Curiouser and curiouser.

[vanessa_ca]

34. I know

And then there's the missing or "lost" one which is curious too. There are pics of a KC-135 multiple sources claim the Islamic Resistance of Iraq’s air defense system shot down, but who knows. They're claiming they shot it down with a P-358 surface-to-air missile.


Some are speculating that the Iraqi resistance may have used surface-to-air missiles against the aircraft operating in western Iraq, forcing them to perform evasive maneuvers, which could be the cause of the alleged accident. That seems plausible to me.

[OAITW r.2.0]

42. Tankers do not collide on mission. They are totally controlled by AWACs on theater,

So what really happened?

[riversedge]

40. The Stratotanker, however, does not have ejection seats. CENTCOM said "rescue efforts are ongoing."

......... The Stratotanker, however, does not have ejection seats. CENTCOM said “rescue efforts are ongoing.”

[Botany]

46. The pilots, the crew, and the planes would all be fine if not for Trump's unneeded war

[milestogo]

50. Operation Epic Fuckup.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

57. The plane was based at Joint Base Andrews.

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/mid-atlantic-and-beyond-milair-2026.495977/page-100#post-4272359

Three more KC-135s have left Salt Lake City headed east.

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/mid-atlantic-and-beyond-milair-2026.495977/page-100#post-4272333