Breaking: One Of The First F-16 Jets Transferred To Ukraine Has Crashed | Aviation

The Ukrainian Air Force has lost one of the first six F-16 jets it has recently received.

A Ukrainian Air Force F-16 fighter jet was lost in a crash on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, a U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal. Preliminary information suggests the jet was not brought down by enemy fire: the crash is believed to have been caused by pilot error.

Noteworthy, the incident coincided with a large-scale Russian missile strike across the country, with a reported total of 127 missiles and 109 one-way attack drones including the Iskander-M/KN-23 GLBM (Ground Launched Ballistic Missile), Kinzhal ALBM (Air Launched Ballistic Missile), Kh-22/32 ALCM (Air Launched Cruise Missile), Kh-101 ALCM, 3M-14 Kalibr SLCM (Sea Launched Cruise Missile), Kh-59/69 ALCM and the Shahed-136 OWA-UAS (One-Way Attack UAS).

On that day, Ukrainian president Zelensky claimed that F-16s were involved in the defense and shot down an unspecified number of cruise missiles.

The news of the crash, first confirmed by a U.S. source to the WSJ but not yet confirmed or commented by the Ukrainian military had started circulating online on Aug. 28, 2024. Some users had noticed that Ihor Polishchuk, the mayor of Lutsk, had posted on social media that Ukrainian Air Force pilot Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes had died on Aug. 26 while performing a combat mission. The post had been removed…