A U.S. KC-135 has crashed in Central Asia.
Local news outlets are reporting that a C -135 tanker (most probably a KC-135) aircraft disappeared from radar screens near Kyrgyz-Kazakh border owned by U.S. Manas Transit Center.
According to Interfax, the Kyrgyz Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed the information about the plane crash. Looks like citizens of Zhayil region saw the blast of the aircraft crashing into a mountain.
The aircraft is not equipped with ejection seats; actually, there is an escape hatch on the KC-135 but chutes were removed from the Stratotankers, because:
“KC-135s are not like other aircraft. They seldom have mishaps, and the likelihood a KC-135 crew member would ever need to use a parachute is extremely low,” according to an article published on the Air Force website.
Across decades of service, millions of flight hours and an incredible number of sorties, the number of known bailout cases involving KC-135s appears to have been extremely limited, suggesting that the probability of such a scenario on any given mission was almost negligible. Moreover, considering where they were stored, the distance from the cockpit and the time required to wear them, many active and former crew members do not view parachutes as a realistic lifesaving option.
KC-135 are deployed to Manas in Kyrzyzstan to support Operation Enduring Freedom over Afghanistan.
In 2004, an Air Force KC-135 collided on the ground at Manas with a Kyrgyzstan Airlines Tupolev Tu-154. There were no injuries on either aircraft.
