BREAKING: US refuelling plane goes down over Iraq

I just want to bring you some breaking news now regarding the situation in Iran. We're hearing from the U.S. military saying that an aircraft has gone missing over western Iraq. The U.S. military is saying it's aware of a loss of a refuelling aircraft in friendly airspace. Just a bit more here from U.S. Central Command, saying two aircraft were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq. The second landed safely. Mark Stone, our U.S. correspondent, is in Washington for us. Mark, what more are you hearing? Well, you pretty much said it there, Jonathan. We've got a little bit more detail that is just coming in from Tampa, which is the headquarters of Central Command, Tampa, Florida. And they are saying at this stage that this was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire. Two aircraft involved. One is a KC-135. That is a large refuelling aircraft. It looks to non-experts like a civilian plane, effectively. It's a Boeing jet, very, very large, probably has a crew of around about six people, including the pilot and co-pilot. That is the aircraft that is missing. The other aircraft, they haven't said what it is. But that landed safely, we're told, in western Iraq. It's probable that that second aircraft was a fighter jet that was being refuelled by the plane that is now missing. So not, we're told, as a result of hostile fire or friendly fire. But nevertheless, these would have been two aircraft heavily involved in the operation in Iran. And it's an illustration of the risks associated with this mission that the Americans and the Israelis are undertaking. And clearly, a huge concern now for the crew on board that KC-135, which is missing. And we're told that rescue efforts in Iraq, we assume, are underway. Yes, Mark, just stay where you are, if you would, for the moment. The latest from US Central Command. It is aware of the loss of that US KC-135 refuelling aircraft, the incident occurring in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury. Rescue efforts are ongoing. Two aircraft, we understand, were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft, as you were saying, went down in western Iraq. The second landed safely, due not to hostile fire or indeed friendly fire. Still waiting to find out the real cause of what has happened there. And as we've been discussing on the programme, Mark, of course, the situation in Iran, Donald Trump making this huge decision, well over a week ago now, to bomb Iran, is going to have massive repercussions amongst Americans, many, of course, who are saying back to him, hang on a minute, President, you're the man who, when you were elected, promised we would not go to war, we would not get involved in the Middle East. Yeah, and his response to that, which has come in various forms over the past week, is that peace is peace through strength. He's repeating that phrase again and again and, you know, clearly when you kind of drill down into what that means, he will argue that it requires and it means taking risks and risks come with danger, of course. But you're right, if, as and when, and I think, you know, he has set the American people up to expect that there will be more casualties, American service people who are killed as a consequence of this, as and when that happens, the risk is that he will lose support among his base, which as we were talking about earlier, it remains for the time being strong. In terms of what happened here, I mean, as we said, what it looks as though, and I'm speculating here as we wait for more details, but what it looks as though probably happened is this was a mid-air refuelling accident. You probably see, people are probably familiar with the way this works, but it's extraordinary, you have this huge tanker aircraft with a hose out of the back of it, the fighter jets come alongside and then they're refuelled mid-air. It's a very, very skilled operation, but it's clearly fraught with risk as well. And it may well be that that is what happened, that one of these mid-air refuelling processes went wrong and one of the aircraft, the larger refuelling aircraft is missing, rescue efforts underway we're told, and another aircraft, presumably but not confirmed to be a fighter jet, landed safely in western Iraq. Yeah, indeed, I've been in one of those refuelling aircraft and seen first-hand how delicate that operation is and quite often they miss the hose the first time or even the second time because the aircraft have to fly so close together. I mean, it is remarkable to watch. Let's just read that CENTCOM statement once again for people joining us. You can see it on your screen just there. US Central Command is aware of the loss of a US KC-135 refuelling aircraft. The incident occurred in friendly airspace during Operation Epic Fury and rescue efforts are ongoing. Two aircraft were involved in the incident. One of the aircraft went down in western Iraq and the second landed safely. This was not due to hostile fire or indeed friendly fire and obviously a rescue operation ongoing in western Iraq for the crew of that aircraft. Just remind us, Mark, how many American military personnel have lost their lives so far in this campaign? It's seven, I believe, that have died. They've died as a consequence of Iranian drones and missiles that have hit American airbases. There were a couple of friendly fire incidents right at the beginning of this conflict ten days or so ago. They were two American jets shot down by Kuwaiti air defence, but in both those cases the American pilots ejected and were safe. I'm just looking at the detail of this particular plane. It's a very old plane. The KC-135 has been in operation since 1957, but the scale of the operation that the Americans are currently undertaking in the Gulf, in the Middle East, is so huge that it was clear to us as we watched this sort of marine maritime armada and air force gathering in the Middle East, it was clear that they were throwing everything at this, so a huge number of aerial and maritime assets, including aircraft, some of which date back quite some time. It's got a very good safety record over many years, hasn't been an accident with one for many, many years. But as you say, these refuelling, mid-air refuelling, is fraught with risk.