The U.S. Department of Defense has identified the six service members who died when a KC-135 Stratotanker military refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on March 10, 2026. The crash occurred in a remote area northwest of Baghdad. The cause of the incident remains under investigation.
According to official releases, the deceased include five members of the Ohio Air National Guard's 121st Air Refueling Wing, based at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base. The sixth was a crew member from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing.
The Pentagon stated the aircraft was on a "routine air refueling mission" in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. There were no indications of hostile activity involved in the crash. Recovery efforts for the aircraft and personnel are ongoing.
This marks one of the deadliest non-combat aviation incidents for U.S. forces in Iraq in recent years. The KC-135, a military version of the Boeing 707, has been a mainstay of the U.S. Air Force's aerial refueling fleet for decades.
