Two coalition service members and one International Security Force civilian were killed when their aircraft crashed on Jan. 10 in Eastern Afghanistan, reported ISAF officials. Although the ISAF casualty report does not list the nationalities of the victims or the type of aircraft, ABC News reported all three were Americans and the aircraft was an MC-12 surveillance plane. “It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities,” states the Jan. 10 release. An Air Forces Central Command spokesman declined to offer any further information pending notification of next of kin. Last year, aircraft mishaps were deemed the leading cause of combat-related deaths in Afghanistan. Since March 2013, there have been 24 coalition service members and civilians killed in six separate aircraft incidents, including four airmen killed in another MC-12 crash last April, reported Stars and Stripes. In most of those cases, NATO ruled out enemy activity as the cause of the mishaps. The Afghanistan crash falls on the heels of a fatal Jan. 7 HH-60 Pave Hawk crash in Eastern England in which four airmen were killed.
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.