Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Between six and eight civilians were reported injured after a US aircraft crashed near Benghazi. It is unclear whether they were wounded by gunfire, or a subsequent airstrike in an attempt to save the crew.
The Telegraph wrote: “US officials insisted that rescue crews did not fire their weapons when retrieving the pilot, contesting media reports that a squad of Marines came in with ‘all guns blazing’ and wounding several civilians.
The pilot and his weapons officer bailed out of their F-15E Strike Eagle fighter over Benghazi when it became crippled by a mechanical fault during a bombing raid on Monday night. The two crewmen became split up when they parachuted to the ground.
“Military commanders decided to dispatch four US Marine Harriers from the USS Kearsarge, off the Libyan coast, when they spotted armoured vehicles approaching the location where the pilot landed. The Harrier pilots dropped two 500lb bombs on the vehicles.”
The Telegraph added: “The apparent contradiction in the accounts suggested that the Libyan villagers may have been injured not by small arms gunfire but shrapnel from the two bombs. It was reported on Tuesday night that eight people were injured in the incident, which is now subject to an investigation by the USAAF.”
The Daily Mail said six people were injured by gunfire in the incident.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Benghazi (بنغازي), for which the generic coordinates are: 32.112582, 20.082151. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (4) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
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Image of the dropped plane (via Daily Mail)
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Another image of the dropped plane (via Daily Mail)
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Another image of the dropped plane (via Daily Mail)