Update: What really happened in the Ukraine F-16 crash?

In August 2024, Ukraine encountered the loss of a new F-16 fighter jet in an incident that the country’s leadership provided very limited information about. However, recent developments have revealed more details about what happened.

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr General Syrskyi was asked what happened during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on the 5th of September and he confirmed some details reported about the incident

“You’ve been calling for a long time for fighter jets and F-16s to be able to not only take the fight to the targets, but also to intercept cruise missiles and others. There’s been an F-16 crash. Can you tell us what was the cause of that crash?” Amanpour asked. 

Syrskyi responded by first pointing out that Ukraine's F-16 pilots have been well-trained by its partner countries, and that Kyiv selected the best pilots to learn how to fly the new aircraft before adding that an investigation into the crash was underway. 

Syrskyi initial remarks were interesting since on September 5th, The Wall Street Journal reported the August F-16 crash “has raised questions about the rush to train pilots and deploy them into combat only weeks after they had arrived in Ukraine” according to some U.S. officials. 

The line of thinking that training issues may have led to the F-16 crash in Ukraine appeared to be headed off by Syrskyi in his interview. However, whether or not the crash was caused by pilot error may not be known until an investigation into the incident is finished. 

Syrskyi noted that “a special commission of the Ministry of Defence is [being] conducting an investigation to find out all the facts of the catastrophe, the crash of this aircraft,” and he confirmed that the F-16’s pilot was flying a mission to down Russian cruise missiles when it occured.

Syrskyi revealed the Ukrainian F-16 pilot who died shot down two cruise missiles and was chasing a third before the crash. He explained that the investigation would reveal what occurred and that Ukraine would not keep the information secret. 

“I think the results of the investigation will be known to everyone shortly. And on the one hand, we are not going to hide it, but on the other hand, the effectiveness of the use of these aircraft has been proven by the results,” Syrskyi said. 

Amanpour asked Syrskyi if the F-16 was downed due to friendly fire, to which he replied that he couldn’t “comment on something where there is no result yet.” The F-16 crash in Ukraine occurred just weeks after the arrival of the fighter jets was announced. 

There has been widespread speculation that the F-16 crash was the result of friendly fire following claims from the Ukrainian politician Mariana Bezugla that the fighter jet was shot down by a Patriot air defense system according to Newsweek. This claim has not been confirmed.

On August 29th, Ukraine confirmed that an F-16 had crashed, which led to the death of the jet's pilot. This was the first loss of an F-16. CBS News noted that initial reports suggested that the F-16 might have been brought downed by a Russian anti-aircraft system. 

A statement from the Ukrainian military originally noted that F-16s were being used to repel a Russian missile attack when communication with one jet was lost. “As it turned out later, the aircraft crashed, killing the pilot," the statement noted. 

Ukraine didn’t reveal the identity of the pilot who was killed in the crash at first, but a Ukrainian Air Force unit later noted one of its pilots, Colonel Oleksiy Mes, had died while repelling a Russian cruise missile attack and later reports confirmed Oleksiy was the pilot flying the crashed F-16.

“On 26 August, while repelling a Russian massive combined missile and air strike, Oleksiy destroyed three cruise missiles and one attack drone,” a statement from Ukraine's Western air command Unit noted, according to CBS News. 

"Oleksiy saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles. Unfortunately, at the cost of his own life," the statement added. Oleksiy Mes, also known by his callsign Moonface, was among the first Ukrainian pilots trained on the F-16 according to Newsweek. 

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