US Names Six Crew Killed in KC-135 Crash in Iraq

The US military identified the six aircrew members killed when a KC-135 Stratotanker went down over western Iraq on Thursday. All six were Air Force personnel, three serving in the active component and three in the National Guard. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called them American heroes. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

The Crew

Maj. John Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama, was chief of squadron standardization and evaluations, responsible for maintaining aircrew skills and safety standards. He held a mechanical engineering degree from Auburn University, had deployed four times since 2019, and logged 181 combat hours.

Capt. Ariana Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington, was chief of current operations for her squadron, managing flight schedules and aircrew training. A graduate of Central Washington University, she had deployed three times to CENTCOM operations and logged 348 combat hours.

Capt. Curtis Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio, handled worldwide air refueling, aeromedical, cargo, and passenger operations. He initially enlisted in the Ohio Air National Guard in 2015 as a vehicle maintenance technician before earning a commission in 2021. He had logged 860 flight hours including 67 combat hours.

Capt. Seth Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana, trained pilots in air refueling and mobility operations. He enlisted as a machinist with the Indiana National Guard in 2006, graduated from Purdue University in 2011, and had accumulated over 2,000 total flight hours including 443 combat hours across five deployments.

Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky, was the noncommissioned officer in charge of readiness for her squadron and taught mid-air refueling procedures. She had logged more than 2,700 flight hours across five CENTCOM deployments since 2018.

Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio, was an in-flight refueling specialist who entered the Air Force in 2018. He had logged 770 flight hours including 230 combat hours across three deployments supporting operations including Epic Fury.

Klinner, Savino, and Pruitt were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base but served day-to-day at Sumpter Smith Joint National Guard Base in Birmingham, Alabama. Koval, Angst, and Simmons were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base near Columbus, Ohio.

The Crash

Central Command confirmed the KC-135 went down at approximately 2 p.m. ET Thursday near Turaibil on the Iraqi-Jordanian border. Two aircraft were involved in the incident. One landed safely. Central Command confirmed the loss was not caused by hostile or friendly fire and described the crash as occurring over friendly airspace. US officials told CBS News the incident may have involved a mid-air collision, though the investigation remains ongoing.

Iran’s military claimed on state television that a pro-Iranian allied group had shot down the aircraft with a missile. That claim is inconsistent with the US military’s own assessment.