Ukraine Probes F-16 Jet Downing by Friendly Fire from Patriot Missile

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is looking into the crash of a Western-donated F-16 fighter aircraft by “friendly fire” from a Ukraine-operated Patriot air defense system on Monday as one of the possibilities of the sudden downing of the aircraft.

Speaking to the Voice of America radio an AFU official said that various possibilities are being considered, including friendly fire, a technical malfunction, and pilot error.

“But the exact reasons will be known only after the completion of the investigation,” he said.

An official statement from the AFU’s General Staff noted only that “communication was lost” with an F-16 aircraft while it was approaching the next target.

“As it turned out later, the plane had crashed, and the pilot was killed,” the statement read.

Mariana Bezugla, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, stated on Facebook that a Patriot air defence system mistakenly shot down Ukrainian pilot Olexiy "Moonfish" Mesya's F-16 due to miscommunication between units.

"War is war; such episodes are possible. However, the culture of deceit within the Command of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as in other senior military headquarters, leads to a deterioration in the military decision-making system," the deputy stated.

Ukrainian Telegram users speculated that the crash could have been caused by one of the Russian missiles unintentionally hitting the F-16 which was on a mission to destroy the Russian missiles. According to the AFU, the F-16 shot down four Russian cruise missiles during the attack, demonstrating "high efficiency." Some others speculated that an AFU air defense missile brought down the jet.