Red Sea mishap: US Navy pilots survive friendly fire from USS Gettysburg

The potentially disastrous mistake underscores the dangers of a mission the United States has been involved in for more than a year to counter Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Photo / 123rf

Two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea on Sunday in “an apparent case of friendly fire”, the US military said.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Sunday they had “targeted” aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman a day earlier in an operation that led to “shooting down an F-18 aircraft” and thwarting “American-British aggression” against Yemen.

United States Central Command (Centcom) said both US pilots were recovered alive, but “initial assessments indicate that one of the crew members sustained minor injuries”.

The incident “was not the result of hostile fire and a full investigation is under way”, Centcom said.

The potentially disastrous mistake underscores the dangers of a mission the United States has been involved in for more than a year to counter Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, waterways vital to global trade.

Centcom said the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg “mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18” fighter aircraft, which Navy pilots had flown off the USS Harry S. Truman.

On Saturday the United States said it struck targets that included a missile storage facility in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa, hours after a Houthi rebel missile wounded people in Israel’s commercial hub, Tel Aviv.

US forces also shot down Houthi attack drones and an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea, Centcom said.

“The operation involved US Air Force and US Navy assets, including F/A-18s,” it said.

The Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel and Hamas have been at war since October 7 last year.