America Jet crash and airmen landed in a field and approached a crowd of people

The two were separated after ejecting from the crippled F-15E Strike Eagle jet at high altitude and drifting down to different locations, Crawley said, adding they sustained minor injuries.
One of the airmen landed in a field and approached a crowd of people, not knowing whether they were supporters of Moammar Gadhafi or members of the opposition, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported.
It turned out they were locals who opposed the Libyan leader, the paper said. "I hugged him and said, 'Don't be scared, we are your friends,'" witness Younis Amruni told the Telegraph.
"We are so grateful to these men who are protecting the skies," Amruni said. "We gave him juice and then the revolutionary military people took him away."
Another witness saw the flaming plane crash into the field. "We didn't hear any shots, it just fell from the sky by itself and then there was a big explosion," said Mohamed Breek.
The aircraft, based out of Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, was flying out of Italy's Aviano Air Base in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn. The cause of the crash is being investigated.

FULL STORY HERE
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42206805/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

So much for letting the Brits and French do the work in this Air War, eh

Moe almost had him a propaganda goldmine if he could have found those pilots first.

'Captured pilots from invading force' paraded through the streets of Tripoli, all news crews welcome....and all that.

will go on. As it does more incidents such as this will happen.

Shades of Somalia.

not part of an armed force, freindly PEOPLE out working in their fields. And the USA is doing A THIRD of the manned aircraft missions. We never said they were doing nothing, they are not doing a majority of the work in the air either.

Got lucky this time, they were flying over Benghazi.

If I was prez I'd pull back all our fighters NOW!

Let the French lead this AIR WAR. They were frothing at the mouth for it.

we have more planes doing missions than the usa does

Numbers of aircraft from each nation involved.

I'd be interested to see that.

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/libya/more-than-15-french-planes-in-libya-strikes-military-1.779560

it also says france has about 20 planes there. The usa had 110 missiles they used so that is a lot. Can you find anything about how many US planes are being used? i cannot.

Wide array of U.S. warplanes used in Libya attacks

Nineteen U.S. warplanes, including Marine Corps Harrier jets, Air Force B-2 stealth bombers and F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, conducted strike operations against Libya Sunday morning, according to Lt. Cmdr. James Stockman of U.S. Africa Command.

The U.S. Navy launched four Harrier "jump jets" from the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship now in the Mediterranean Sea. The Harriers "conducted strikes against Gadhafi's ground forces and air defenses, joining an international effort to halt an offensive against the Libyan populace," said Navy spokesman Cmdr. Danny Hernandez.

The U.S. Navy also flew EA-18 Growlers, which are special versions of the F/A 18 fighter designed to jam enemy electronic signals, such as targeting radar from enemy air defense batteries, Hernandez said.

The U.S. Air Force flew three B-2 stealth bombers, four F-15 and 8 F-16s in strike missions over Libya. Africa Command would not say what bases the Air Force planes came from, but some of the U.S. warplanes did require mid-air refueling by American air tankers during their mission, according to a U.S. Africa Command spokeswoman. All the warplanes dropped GPS-guided bombs during their missions, she said.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-20/world/libya.planes_1_stealth-bombers-warplanes-air-force-b-2?_s=PM:WORLD


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More than 15 French planes in Libya strikes: military

Paris: France deployed "more than 15 aircraft" that took part in ground strikes on Sunday, said a spokesman for the military's general staff, Colonel Thierry Burkhard

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/libya/more-than-15-french-planes-in-libya-strikes-military-1.779560

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The Brits aren't saying much about their planes

"About 20 French fighter jets carried out "several strikes" earlier Saturday, military spokesman Thierry Burkhard told The Associated Press. He said earlier that one of the planes had fired the first shot against a Libyan military vehicle." http://gulfnews.com/news/region/libya/more-than-15-french-planes-in-libya-strikes-military-1.779560

from the same news source so france has 15 to 20 and the us has 19 according to this report. roughly equal effort but the usa has 5 times as many people, so proportionally i am paying more as a french person than i am as an american (i have 2 nationalities). thank you for finding the number of american planes i searched for usa and france at the same time and forgot to individually search

i did find this though, saying how france pushed for the no fly zone, how they led the first raids, but how "only" the usa had the capability to knock out libyan air defense so the usa led the way with missles but that it is imagined that the uk and france will be flying the missions. we have it in europe we just are not organized well as a european union army yet. so yes, in practice i agree with the caviat "only ones capable which sent forces, a couple of countries chose to abstain in the security council vote

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/sc-dc-0320-us-military-libya-20110319,0,7579064.story

A French Mirage 2000-5 aircraft, seen in this photo released by ECPAD (French Defence communication and audiovisual production agency), prepares to take off from the Dijon military base on a mission to overfly Libya March 19, 2011.



This photo provided by the French Army shows soldiers fixing a GBU.12 bomb on a French Mirage 2000 jet fighter at the military base of Nancy, eastern France, Saturday, March 19, 2011

Add it to the cost of the boondoggle.

They were built in the 80's for around $26M. Lots of variants out there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle

:thumbsup: