On 27 January 2020, a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Bombardier Global Express The Bombardier Global Express is a large cabin, 6,000 nmi / 11,100 km range business jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aviation (formerly Bombardier Aerospace). Announced in October 1991, it first flew on 13 October 1996, receiv ...

E-11A aircraft crashed in Afghanistan's Dih Yak District,

Ghazni Province Ghazni (Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The province contains 19 districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most populous province. The ...

. Two people on board were killed, who comprised the entire crew according to U.S. military sources. With the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August 2021, this was the last acknowledged U.S. fatal aviation incident of the

war in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) *Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...

Accident

The aircraft crashed at 13:10

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

(08:40 UTC) in the Dih Yak District.

, Afghanistan. The crash site is south west of

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

, and near the village of Sado Khelo.

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

stated that all five people on board were killed. The

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

only confirmed two fatalities recovered at the crash site. Two Afghan locals died on the ground by impact of the crash. It was originally reported to be an aircraft of

Ariana Afghan Airlines Ariana Afghan Airlines Co. Ltd. ( ps, د آريانا افغان هوايي شرکت; prs, هواپیمایی آریانا), also known simply as Ariana, is the flag carrier and largest airline of Afghanistan. Founded in 1955, Ariana is the olde ...

, but the airline later ruled out this possibility, saying all its flights had been accounted for. A spokesman for the United States military confirmed the identity of the aircraft involved in the accident, which occurred in an area controlled by the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

. A Taliban spokesman said to Al-Arabiyah, that Taliban militias shot down the aircraft killing everyone on board, including high-ranking officials. However, these reports remain unconfirmed. Reports circulated by state affiliated media of both Iran and Russia suggested that the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

's Chief of Iran operations

Michael D'Andrea Michael D'Andrea (born 1954) is a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer who played an instrumental role in American counterterrorism efforts during the War on Terror. He served nine years as director of Counterterrorism Center (CTC), and ...

was killed in the crash. These reports are also unconfirmed, and the CIA neither confirmed nor denied the presence of its officers aboard the crashed plane. On 29 January 2020, Pentagon sources identified the airmen killed in the crash as 46-year-old

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Paul K. Voss of

Yigo, Guam Yigo, Guam ( ch, Yigu; pronounced ) is the northernmost village of the United States territory of Guam, and is the location of Andersen Air Force Base. The municipality of Yigo is the largest village on the island in terms of area. It contains a n ...

(who had served with the U.S. Air Force for 25 years) and 30-year-old

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Ryan S. Phaneuf of

Hudson, New Hampshire Hudson is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is located along the Massachusetts state line. The population was 25,394 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-largest mu ...

(who had served with the U.S. Air Force for 8 years).

Aircraft

The incident aircraft was a

outfitted by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

as an E-11A of the

. Video of the crash scene shows that the aircraft serial number wa
11–9358

msn MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

br>9358
It had first flown in 2009. The aircraft was operated by the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron in the

Battlefield Airborne Communications Node The Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) is a United States Air Force (USAF) airborne communications Repeater, relay and Gateway (telecommunications), gateway system carried by the unmanned Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, EQ-4B an ...

role. The aircraft involved in the crash was one of only four in the United States Air Force.

Investigation and findings

American military authorities opened an investigation into the incident. The aircraft's

flight data recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...

was recovered. The investigation concluded that the crash was caused by a broken

turbine blade ...

on the left engine compounded by

pilot error Pilot error generally refers to an Aviation accidents and incidents, accident in which an action or decision made by the Aircraft pilot#Airline, pilot was the cause or a contributing factor that led to the accident, but also includes the pi ...

. The crew misidentified which engine had failed. As a result, the pilots mistakenly shut off power to the right engine, believing the left engine was still intact. The failure to restart the correct engine in the air, and their attempt to return to Kandahar Air Base, substantially contributed to the mishap. With no working engines, the aircraft lacked the necessary

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

and

airspeed In aviation, airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air. Among the common conventions for qualifying airspeed are: * Indicated airspeed ("IAS"), what is read on an airspeed gauge connected to a Pitot-static system; * Calibrated a ...

to glide to the nearest base, forcing them to make an

emergency landing An emergency landing is a premature landing made by an aircraft in response to an emergency involving an imminent or ongoing threat to the safety and operation of the aircraft, or involving a sudden need for a passenger or crew on board to term ...

on the snowy terrain, which proved too rugged to land safely.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:United States Air Force E-11A crash, 2020 2020 in Afghanistan 21st century in Ghazni Province 2020 E-11 A crash Aviation accidents and incidents in 2020 Aviation accidents and incidents in Afghanistan January 2020 events in Asia Airliner accidents and incidents caused by engine failure Airliner accidents and incidents caused by wrong engine shutdown 2020 disasters in Afghanistan

Accident

Aircraft

Investigation and findings

See also

References