A Ukrainian pilot was killed when a US-made F-16 crashed in Ukraine on Monday, CNN reported on Thursday, citing a Ukrainian military official.
The crash is a blow to Ukraine, which just received its first batch of F-16s from NATO countries a few weeks ago. So far, Ukraine has only received a handful of F-16s, and this is the first confirmed loss of one.
A Ukrainian official said the pilot, Oleksiy Mes, crashed while “repelling the biggest ever aerial attack” launched by Russia against Ukraine. The cause of the crash is unclear, but the Ukrainian military has described it as an “accident,” suggesting it wasn’t shot down by Russia.
A US official told The Wall Street Journal that the crash was likely a result of pilot error, but the Ukrainian official told CNN that Kyiv doesn’t think that was the cause.
According to CNN, Mes began training on the F-16 in the US last fall. While it can take years to complete F-16 training, Mes and the other pilots had to do it in six months.
Ukraine is facing a shortage of pilots who can operate the F-16s and has been frustrated by the limited number of training slots available in the US. US officials told The New York Times this month that 20 Ukrainian pilots are expected to be capable of flying the jets this year.
The officials said that two pilots are required per each deployed F-16. The planes are designed to be operated by one pilot, but they may require two for a deployment, so each pilot has relief available.
War is dangerous. RIP brave pilot who was trying to protect his country from Russians pigs.
the pics are the americans..!
Better said, BIH. "Peace" is not in the UkraNazi lexicon.
Ukronazis is wild considering theres a division in the Russian army who make no secret to their Nazism and brag about committing war crimes.
УКРАЇНЦІ НЕ НАЦИСТИ
and if you say that the opposing side isn't something its probably because you are
It's a single-engine plane from the 1970s flown by pilots who got a crash course. Flying in a 1970s cesna in ideal peacetime conditions, I once almost had to land on a highway. Another memorable incident was a stalled engine and spin over the Rockies. Ukraine's F-16s are quite ready to have a deep impact on a mountainside, no help from Russia needed.
Yes, 2nd hand US F-16's et. al. are typically knocked down to 3rd world tin-pot dictators. Zelinsky fits the bill.
якщо ви вважаєте, що наш лідер є диктатором, це дійсно говорить про вашу мораль.
The mechanics who work on them apparently call them 'Lawn Darts' for their habit of sucking junk off the runway and blowing their engine during takeoff.
Simplicius the Thinker writes
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/last-of-the-wunderwaffen-f-16-blasted
that apparently the F-16 was shot down by a U.S.-supplied Patriot system.
The F-16s were supposed to be packed with the latest technology not even available to U.S. allies, to make them invisible to radar.
It is very difficult to distinguish who is friend or foe in the air in a situation where you have planes and missiles flying, a dozen dots on the screen. The Biden lackeys who laughed at Russians for earlier friendly-fire incidents now get a taste of their own medicine.
We never claimed that f-16's were "packed with the latest technology not available to US allies," they are old and crappy 1980's planes , and even I admit that.
"Moonfish" brilliantly maneuvered his newly renewed F-16 with more brilliance than its flashy paint. He out-flanked the Russian pilots and destroyed 1 billion Russian jets! That's what we know for sure so far. What happened afterwards remains a mystery–Russian Propaganda.
I can't hear your explanation over the screaming-loud Kenny Loggins played as Ukrainian officials pull a morale-boosting story out of their aaaa….ilerons.
What can I say. God dealt us a hand full of aces and Hollywood.
Russia Did It! No Wait!? No No No. That can't be! Russia is Stupid! Ukraine Did It!
The Russkie pigs are pretty stupid, so I', with you there
It was a Russian Shovel! No No No. Russian Shovels are STUPID! A PATRIOT DID IT!
"Moonfish" was so brilliant. He destroyed more Russian missiles that the Russians could ever produce then he had an accident. …I know. …The jokes write themselves folks.
xaxaxaxa
This is brilliant. It was good for Ukraine to come up with the story. From now on, anyone shows evidence of a destroyed F16, Ukraine will pretend it already told us about it.
It was a STEALTH F-16, you see.
I see, said the blind man, and so did the Russian missile.
da
Ukrainians doing what they do best, suicide!
заткнись, неосвічений американський орк
Stay out of Ukraine
Stay out of my checkbook. Ukraine needs to stand on it's own. The USA has too many problems at home to keep shoveling our tax dollars into the back hole that is Urkaine.
every time reactionaries like you have proposed neutrality it never ends well
WW1
WW2
Now the Ukraine War
WW1 ended tsarist Russia and changed Russia from a great European power to becoming a great world power. WW2 solidified that and ended in Russia becoming one of the two worldpowers in the duopolist worldorder. It did not end all that well for the reactionaries who invaded Russia I seem to recall.
It also did not end well for the Ukrainians joining those reactionary forces at the time. Well, not all thàt bad. They're being applauded to in Canada, as they thought it a good idea to rehabilitate the SS in parliament. Zelensky was clapping his hands blue with them. Remarkable how things can change right? I'm sure Himmler is smiling upon them from Heaven.
stop having wet dreams about Russia my guy
Oh I see, that also went right over your head.
i think you are nonetheless
US "neutrality" had nothing to do with WW1 and little to do with WW2.
IN fact, the world would likely have been far, far better off had the USA stayed OUT of WW1, and left the europeans to fight each other to a bloody stalemate, and reach a negotiated stalemate on their own, that did NOT cause all the problems and social disintegration that made WW2 inevitable.
Taken even further, a settlement that left the Ottoman empire standing might have avoided all the post war nonsense that has left its mark on the middle east today. So, "neutrality" YES, mindless arrogant intervention (the only kind we know how to do) NO.
by the time the Johnnies went over to Europe it was almost over already anyways so that one I can see (one) eye with that one
That’s nonsense. The only “historians” who support that view are British, because their national pride can’t admit they were on their last legs. The USA suffered over 100,000 war dead in 6 months of 1918 alone taking back territory the western allies had been evicted from in the 1918 German offensive. Not to mention the immense war loans and war supplies provided to the UK and France which, of course, they defaulted on.
ah yea, Johnnies were very good fighters, lives lost were a tragedies
I like WW1 and WW2 history
And as I recall, it was only that American intervention on the Allied side prolonged the war to the point where German society said "enough is enough". People tend to forget that Germany wasn't conquered; it just stopped fighting.
Good point – a German win would have prevented the rise of Hitler. Tho some might propose that on an alternate path, a disgruntled, loser France would have rallied behind a Hungarian corporal named Reltih and his far-Left Domestic Capitalist (Doca) Party.
"Moonfish" was brilliant until he made an error. ARE YOU $HITTING ME!? You are blaming it on the Ukrainian? It's like Arnold says to Predator: "You are one ugly mother fu@ker."
Today's passenger airplanes have warning systems and sometimes automatic corrections when problems such as stalling occur. Did this plane have such protections? Or were they removed to prevent them falling into Russian hands?
What were the weather conditions when the crash began?
Did this plane have "Black Boxes?" If not, then the cause for the crash may never be understood.
It should have
Everyone has this all wrong. Don’t you know that it was the Nordstream pipeline that blew up the F-16!
Ok Čarets'k
For sure…! It was an accident…!
One Down… Five More to Go…!
My Godddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
Well, there goes $63m. And a life.
FFS, they couldn't start the training with (F-16 Training Module 0001 : The Ejection Seat And You ! ) ???
The life is the sad part
Any old turds here remember the very old sitcom "Get Smart"? When Don Addams playing Maxwell Smart used to do his "Would you believe routine"? This reminds me of that.
Routinely going through several double-doors…!
https://youtu.be/o2ObCoCm61s
Thanks.
US officials told The New York Times this month that
2019 Ukrainian pilots are expected to be capable of flying the jets this year.Their pilots don't know English well… And no, the gifted jet instrument panel language has not been converted to East Slavic…!
They don't got them handheld raised-print label-makers from the '70s over there ?
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/erygqv/embossing_label_maker/
LOL. I still have one.
same!
Really hard to read however…. i think the paint is chipping
into… east slavic? Ukrainian is not a curse word…!
So that was "Moonfish." Their best pilot by popular account. Since we can't doubt the success of the repelling in the aerial attack by this next incarnation of the gamechanging wonderweapon we can safely assume Russia must be clear out of missiles by now, since all targets in each and every oblast were succesfully hit and destroyed by Russian missiles that day.
Maybe retired pilots with suicidal tendencies or a perhaps otherwise motivated deathwish should heed Lindsey Grahams advice and go fly a previously retired, from a diverse collections of spare parts patched up F-16 in Ukraine.
"Moonfish?" Dude! That's funny. "Fish" on the "Moon?" Does it live there with "The Ghost of Kiev?"
Man, when you have nine pilots left, callsigns can be REALLY hard to come up with. "Jester", "Maverick", "Iceman", and "Redbaronski" were already taken by previous Ukrainian pilots.
"Moonfish771" or "#TehRealM00nfish" are still available tho.
xaxaxaxa
The Ukrainian military say now that he was shot down by a mistake with a Patriot missile.
I'm hearing the F-16 was shot down by a PATRIOT missile. Figures. I am so done with this Ukrainian farce. Let the Russians annex the whole damned country and end it.
русотард
фашистський геноцидний ідіот
If Russia steps a foot into my Lviv, I will use some molotov cocktails I have stockpiled in my apartment.
Best keep a fire-extinguisher at close range then so they can put you out before you burn yourself to a crisp.
shush i know how to use one albert
"While it can take years to complete F-16 training, Mes and the other pilots (managed to accomplish this insane feat, plus learning written English) in (only) six (f**king unthinkably quick) months."
Would not be surprised to read in the obit of the downed pilot, Oleksiy Mes, that "he will be missed by his fellow Ukrainian airmen; and his friends and family in Reno, Nevada, where he was born John Nesberg, later Lt. Nesberg of the US Air Force, with whom he was an F-16 pilot until mid-2024."
Poor blokes
Ukraine is a mess. They might have shot down their own plane:
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired the commander of the country’s air force Friday, four days after an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners crashed during a Russian bombardment and killed the pilot.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website.
“We need to protect people. Protect personnel. Take care of all our soldiers,” Zelenskyy said in an address minutes after the order was published. He said Ukraine needs to strengthen its army on the command level.
Lt. Gen. Anatolii Kryvonozhko was appointed acting air force commander, the army’s general staff said.
The dismissal came on the same day that Oleshchuk directed scathing criticism at a lawmaker who is deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament’s defense committee for her claims that the F-16 was downed by a Patriot air-defense system. Ukraine has received an unspecified number of the U.S.-made systems.
Mariana Bezuhla cited unnamed sources for her claim and demanded punishment for those responsible for the error.
Oleshchuk accused Bezuhla of defaming the air force and discrediting U.S. arms manufacturers and said that he hoped she would face legal consequences for her claims.
“The truth will win,” Bezuhla posted on X shortly after the dismissal order was published.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ukraine-zelenskyy-president-f-16-crash-fires-air-force-commander-rcna169036
Bernhard at MoA covers this in some detail, identifying the politics behind the arguments in Ukraine over responsibility:
Ukraine SitRep: Patriot Airdefense System Vs. Ukrainian F-16 – 1:0
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/08/ukraine-sitrep-patriot-airdefense-system-vs-ukrainian-f-16-10.html
People there think this new narrative is a cover up.
Small sampling:
F-16 pilot killed in Ukraine Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Mes was one of the first Ukrainians allowed to fly American fighters. He spent six months in Denmark learning to fly F-16s. A local deputy writes that Mes was killed on August 26 – during a missile attack on military and industrial facilities in Ukraine. One of the strikes was carried out on the F-16 base airport in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. The day before, the Ukrainian Armed Forces posted a photo of the planes, which revealed their storage location. - Anna News https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1828835185368133922 Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 29 2024 9:57 utc | 10 Posted by: Melaleuca | Aug 31 2024 0:40 utc | 99
Made my day!
Posted by: Suresh | Aug 31 2024 1:20 utc | 105
The F-16 plane and pilot was taken out on the ground at the Ivanovo-Frankivsk airfield.
>…Why is an Ukrainian politician being given lots of oxygen in the west, saying it was “friendly fire” from a Patriot?
Because both the Ukrainians (and their U$ puppeteers), don’t want it known it was (once again) Ukrainian grandiosity and pomposity and egregious disregard for op-sec that invited the Russians to deliver a missile and puncture the hubris.
The “Patriot” own goal is a “better” option to explain the loss of pilot and plane, than unrelenting Ukrainian stupidity, especially this late in the sloSMO.
Telegram:
>… https://t.me/RWApodcast/1894
Russians with Attitude:
… consequences of the Russian missile barrage on August 26.
The first Ukrainian F-16 pilot, who had been training to fly the fighter aircraft for two years, was killed in a missile attack on military and industrial targets in the Ivano-Frankovsk region by the Russian armed forces.
Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Mesya, who was previously stationed at the airbase where American F-16s are based, was on-site when the attack occurred on August 26.
Mesya was killed in the attack, according to the Ukrainian Deputy of the Lutsk City Council, Igor Polishchuk, who shared this information on social media.
http://t.me/RWApodcast/1894
https://t.me/RWApodcast/1896
WSJ reports F-16 “was destroyed in a crash”
[Kiril- “Apparently it "crashed" (into an Iskander missile while on the ground).
Posted by: Melaleuca | Aug 31 2024 4:03 utc | 110
This doesn't rule out that more F-16s were possibly destroyed that were stationed in the hanger…!
Could be. And since there were trainers, were any Americans there?
If Russians bombed military and industrial facilities, their comment about consequences, the other day, makes more sense.
Ukraine is a mess. They might have shot down their own plane:
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired the commander of the country’s air force Friday, four days after an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners crashed during a Russian bombardment and killed the pilot.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website.
“We need to protect people. Protect personnel. Take care of all our soldiers,” Zelenskyy said in an address minutes after the order was published. He said Ukraine needs to strengthen its army on the command level.
Lt. Gen. Anatolii Kryvonozhko was appointed acting air force commander, the army’s general staff said.
The dismissal came on the same day that Oleshchuk directed scathing criticism at a lawmaker who is deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament’s defense committee for her claims that the F-16 was downed by a Patriot air-defense system. Ukraine has received an unspecified number of the U.S.-made systems.
Mariana Bezuhla cited unnamed sources for her claim and demanded punishment for those responsible for the error.
Oleshchuk accused Bezuhla of defaming the air force and discrediting U.S. arms manufacturers and said that he hoped she would face legal consequences for her claims.
“The truth will win,” Bezuhla posted on X shortly after the dismissal order was published.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ukraine-zelenskyy-president-f-16-crash-fires-air-force-commander-rcna169036
All of Ukraine's F16's will end up crashed.
Looks like we have a Ukrainian on here who refuses to go to the front lines and defend his country.
Most likely a soy boy!
refuses? I have a year left of college which I paid for! Not very critical of you, considering you're a "critical thinker!"
And soy? Don't tell me an American is whining about soy.
Stay in your place орк
So, we have a Ukrainian coward on here who is using college as his excuse to hide from his military duty. Sad pathetic young man who refuses to answer his draft notice and prefers to hide outside of his military. When it’s all over and Ukraine ceases to exist as a sovereign nation what will be his excuse then for not serving in his military?
you’re such a bum
I already have a contract with them to join the military after i’m done!
and Ukraine will never cease to be a sovereign nation
Glory to Ukraine! Death to the enemies of Ukraine!! DEATH TO RUSSIA!!
By the time you finish hiding in college as the coward you are, Ukraine will be swept into the dustbin of history as a fiction and abomination that never should have existed. That guy from Georgia by the name of Stalin had the right idea when he tried to eliminate the terrorists who live there. At least 66% of the people who lived in Ukraine have abandoned the shipwreck called Ukraine.
Silly coward casting aspersions like a preschool child.
LIES
UKRAINE IS NOT YET LOST AND WILL NEVER BE LOST
UKRAINE IS MEANT TO ME
STALIN WAS WORSE THAN HITLER TO US
66 PERCENT OF OUR COMRADES HAVE NOT ABANDONED US
СЛАВА УКРАЇНІ
СМЕРТЬ ВОРОГАМ
СМЕРТЬ РОСІЇААААААААААА
MY MY, ALL CAPS. Perhaps that is your problem and the problem with all of Western Ukraine Lithuanian-Polish. Excitable useless idiots who are being used by America and the West. The last Ukrainian will not have to worry about turning out the lights as Russia is doing a great job turning off all of the generation capability.
It really is too bad that Stalin didn’t finish what he started.
It’s ok for cowards like you to hide in college. You know you will not have anything to go back to.
“It really is too bad that Stalin didn’t finish what he started..”
my god you are demented
I’ve never seen an “anti-War” person show their true colors like this!
Look at the statements you make before judging other people. Clearly hypocritical and reactive/childish.
Do society a favour and stay in school.
For a very long time.
look at his statements lil guy
Stalin reacted to fascists from western Ukraine who were essentially terrorists bent on killing Russian Slavic people.
Learn your history!
what fascists? all the poor Ukrainian farmers and their children in Ukraine? THOSE FASCISTS??
I LOST FAMILY IN THE HOLODOMOR
Sure you did! You just added liar to poser!
"A pathological liar as in you are not concerned with the difference between truth or falsehood. You do not distinguish between fact and fantasy. Your lying is a disease." William Shakespeare
That quote sums up you and all of Ukraine!
my great grandma died
Everyone has had grandparents die. Illogical and a lie in connection with any historical actions of any country.
Of course, the Banderites who were fascist Ukrainians working for the Nazi SS murdered 10s of thousands of Jewish Ukrainians in the 1940s. Many were buried while still alive in mass graves in Western Ukraine!
I’m sorry? And what is a “western Ukraine lithuanian polish?”
I do not speak Lituanian or Polski.
Then you know nothing about the history of Ukraine and the Western portion of it. Therefore, you are patently a fraud.
Poland owned a good bit of Western Ukraine. Hungary and Romania also owned a good portion of Western Ukraine.
Western Ukraine is formerly part of the Polish nation and also the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In the 1940s Banderite Western Ukrainians joined with the Waffen SS and exterminated 10s of thousands of Jewish Ukrainians.
If you were really a Ukrainian you would know that fascist AZOV Banderites have killed many Jewish and Slavic people.
Perhaps you need to go back to school and learn about your despicable relatives who joined Adolf Hitlers minions.
Theen again I doubt that you are from Ukraine and are obviously a poser.
You’ll stop using ethnic slurs in this forum or you’ll be banned from this forum. Pick one.
That part’s non-negotiable.
The advice part, you can take or leave as you wish:
I’d advise againsts wasting your time or attention on “Critical” “Thinker,” who is no thinker and who is only potentially “critical” in the pomo cultural Marxist “critical theory” sense.
ok fine
The end is near!
For any fascist Ukrainian who is hiding outside his country and living in a fantasy world here is a reality check.
I love CNN "citing" Ukrainian officials. How about asking some journalistic questions instead of just repeating their talking points? Like, "why did you wait 3 days before reporting that the pilot was killed, when he died on August 26? Why was the death only revealed after news was leaked of his public funeral? And why was the loss of the aircraft not initially acknowledged, and why the multiple versions concerning its destruction?"
I get that all government bend, shape, and distort the truth; BUT it is the JOB of journalists (OK, CNN, I know…) to hold them accountable and disclose the truth. When politicians lie, or dissemble, have the integrity to SAY they are lying and dissembling. OK, CNN, I know, rant over.