Re: Six injured as US team botches rescue of downed airmen

[Guest guest]

Its possible that this was simply the way they had been trained, to put down suppressing fire on that they thought might be a hostile landing zone. That said, if they knew where to land, that seems to mean they were in contact with at least one of the pilots on the ground via their rescue radio. For that matter if they sprayed that much fire, they could have killed the pilots they were there to get.

I also noticed in the article they said the plane can fly several times the speed of sound and that is why the crew was hurt. The plane can fly that fast, but on a ground attack mission they wouldn't be flying supersonic. At any rate, these jets can only fly 10 or 15 minutes on supersonic by using their afterburners before their fuel load is gone. So, the pilots almost certainly ejected at high subsonic speed which is brutal enough. Most pilots who eject end up injured to one extent or another. Broken bones are common as are facial injuries and back injuries.

In a message dated 3/22/2011 5:50:09 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

Libya: Six injured as US team botches rescue of downed airmen