A Navy warship fired at an American fighter jet mistaking it for an enemy missile. The target pilot saw his life flash before his eyes.

• A US Navy warship fired missiles at two US F/A-18 fighter jets over the Red Sea last year.

• The warship took the fighter jet as a Houthi cruise missile, the investigation showed.

• A fighter plane was shot down. Another barely survived friendly fire.

A US Navy pilot whose jet was mistakenly shot down by a US warship in the Red Sea has told investigators that he saw his life flash before his eyes before ejecting from the doomed plane.

A command investigation into the friendly fire incident in late December 2024, which Business Insider reviewed ahead of its release Thursday, shows that the warship’s crew mistook two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets for anti-ship cruise missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In a catastrophic failure, the cruiser USS Gettysburg fired surface-to-air missiles at both F/A-18s, shooting down one and narrowly missing the second. It also targeted a third friendly aircraft but never pulled the trigger.

A hit and a near-miss

In September 2024, the Gettysburg and other warships of the strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman entered the Red Sea three months later to conduct naval combat operations against the Iran-backed Houthis, who had by that point been attacking key shipping lanes for nearly a year.

Early on December 22, seven days after entering the Red Sea, Gettysburg accidentally shot down a Super Hornet from Truman’s air wing in what the US military described as “an apparent case of friendly fire”. Both aviators, pilots and weapons officers ejected safely from the nearly $60 million fighter, part of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11), the “Red Reapers.”

A command investigation reveals that a friendly fire incident almost resulted in a much greater disaster. Although initial reports focused on the plane that was hit, investigations revealed that a second narrowly escaped a catastrophic end, and a third was in the crosshairs.

The first surface-to-air missile fired from Gettysburg’s missile tube led the pilot and weapons officer of the first jet to assume that the weapon was in pursuit of a Houthi drone, the investigation said.

They watched the missile climb and then suddenly change course. As the weapon moved toward them, the pilot suddenly saw his life flash before his eyes, he told investigators. Seeing no other option, the two-man crew ejected before the missile hit the plane.

In that chaotic moment, Gettysburg fired another missile at a second American fighter jet. The aviators on board issued several mayday calls but chose to stick it out instead of bailing out. The missile chases after the jet, making course corrections.

It narrowly missed, the jet shuddered as it flew a few feet before burning and exploding into the water.

A Navy helicopter commander who witnessed the incident told investigators that his crew “saw the missile overhead and saw a flash.” They said no warning was given before firing.

Decision to shoot ‘wrong’

As for the cause of the disaster, the command investigation pointed to a series of failures, from deficiencies in the planning process to deficiencies in Gettysburg’s combat systems, and noted that crew fatigue may have played a role.

Early in the deployment, the investigation said, the Navy identified “significant degradation” in Gettysburg’s key interoperability system. Issues span network management, surveillance and tracking reporting, identification, mutual tracking, mission engagement, and weapons coordination.

During the first three months of the deployment, Gettysburg and Truman were often separated. The cruiser was intercepting Houthi missiles and drones shortly before the friendly fire incident, and there was some confusion about whether the threat was over.

That said, the investigation assessed that the commanding officer at Gettysburg’s “decisions to fire were incorrect when measured against the totality of available information,” hampered by a series of previous actions and decisions both within and outside of his control.

The captain had poor situational awareness, and his combat information center team could not help him regain it, the investigation said.

This shooting incident was not the only friendly fire incident of the Red Sea War, although it was the most serious. At the start of the Red Sea conflict, in February 2024, a German warship accidentally targeted an American MQ-9 Reaper drone, but the missiles failed to reach it due to a technical malfunction in the warship’s radar system.

The December 2024 friendly fire incident was one of four major casualties that the Truman Strike Group experienced during its month-long deployment to the Middle East.

The aircraft carrier collided with a cargo ship in February and also lost two more F/A-18s in accidents – one fell off the side of the battleship with a tow tractor in April, and the other experienced a landing failure and skidded off the flight deck in May.

In a statement Thursday, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jim Kilby said that “the Navy is committed to being a learning organization,” adding, “These investigations reinforce the need for operational commanders to continue investing in our people to ensure we provide combat-ready forces.”

Read the original article on Business Insider