Fresno-based pilot in Ukraine's fighter SU-27

Fresno-based fighter pilot killed in Ukraine identified as Lt. Col. Seth "Jethro" Nehring

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- An airman from Fresno, killed in a crash of a fighter jet in Ukraine, has been identified as Lt. Col. Seth "Jethro" Nehring.

The two-seat Su-27UB went down on Tuesday in western Ukraine.

Nehring was a fighter pilot with the California Air National Guard's 194th Fighter Squadron, part of the 144th Fighter Wing based at the Fresno Air National Guard Base, located on the southeast corner of Fresno-Yosemite International Airport.

Lt. Col. Nehring and a Ukrainian service member were killed when the Ukrainian Su-27UB aircraft they were in crashed during a familiarization flight.

The Air Force says that Nehring has been a member of the 144th for more than 20 years. Nehring began his career as an enlisted crew chief before being selected as a pilot. He flew the F-16 Viper for more than 15 years, before converting to the F-15 Eagle.

The familiarization flight was part of a joint military training exercise called Clear Sky 2018, which kicked off last week. Clear Sky brings together more than 950 personnel from Ukraine and eight NATO nations. The familiarization flights give NATO service members an opportunity to ride in Soviet or Russian-built aircraft, like the Su-27UB fighter jet.

https://abc30.com/fresno-based-fight...ified/4505215/

Strange that as per some sources the instructor in the training 2-seater was not the US pilot but the Ukraine serviceman.

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Originally Posted by Klondyke

Strange that as per some sources the instructor in the training 2-seater was not the US pilot but the Ukraine serviceman.

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Surely the Ukrainian would have more SU27UB hours than the other pilot?

The article I read earlier about this crash didn’t say which man was the pilot, either but I assumed it was the Ukrainian, like OhOh.

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Originally Posted by misskit

The article I read earlier about this crash didn’t say which man was the pilot, either but I assumed it was the Ukrainian, like OhOh.

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"This is a sad day for the United States and Ukraine," said Maj. Gen. Clay Garrison, California Air National Guard commander and director of the two-week Clear Sky exercise. "Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and fellow Airmen of both the U.S. Airman and Ukrainian aviator who were killed in the incident."

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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/p...nian-jet-crash

obviously Putin is behind all this, clearly a case of sabotage

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The U.S. Air National Guard on Wednesday identified its fighter pilot and the Ukrainian pilot killed when an Su-27UB Flanker-C fighter crashed during Exercise Clear Sky.

Lt. Col. Seth "Jethro" Nehring, a fighter pilot with the California Air National Guard's 194th Fighter Squadron, out of the 144th Fighter Wing, and Col. Ivan Petrenko, deputy commander of the East Air, Chief of Aviation from Ozern Air Base, Zhytomer, Ukraine, were killed in the crash, the 144th Fighter Wing said in a release.

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The last time the Air Force participated so extensively in a Ukrainian exercise was in 2011 during Exercise Safe Skies, focused on air-sovereignty rules of engagement, Garrison said.

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https://www.military.com/daily-news/...ine-crash.html

The U.S. Air National Guards are not the same as Air Force, are they? They are not under the command of Pentagon and Congress but the POTUS.
Or did I get it wrong?

I believe his last words were...........What a piece of shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

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Originally Posted by Dragonfly

obviously Putin is behind all this, clearly a case of sabotage

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The orange box which records all events is of Russian origin, only they have the password. The voice recorder, after careful Russian analysis, will clearly say, " If only I had had a plane like this in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan ......... The Ukranian instructor pilot is heard to say, "I have the controls", moments before he pushed the landing gear/destruct button.

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Originally Posted by Klondyke

The U.S. Air National Guards are not the same as Air Force, are they? They are not under the command of Pentagon and Congress but the POTUS.

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They are state militia under the control of the state’s governor and a reserve force for the US military.

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Originally Posted by misskit

They are state militia under the control of the state’s governor and a reserve force for the US military.

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Does that mean they can be sent in an combat anywhere without having a consent of Congress?

American serviceman killed in Ukrainian Su-27 crash during war games with NATO

The US Air Force, which confirmed their service member was “involved” in the incident, is now investigating the crash. “We understand there was an American in the backseat of the aircraft,” US Air Forces Europe-Africa said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian police warned that the crashed fighter jet may have munitions on board that could still detonate, a local UNN news agency reported. “It is a military aircraft. There could have been munitions on board that could detonate,” a police representative told the UNN, explaining why police officers had to cordon off the crash site and ban journalists from approaching the area.

An eyewitness to the crash told the 20 Khvilin website that the Su-27 was spinning as it was going down. “It began rotating when it was flying above the settlement. The pilots were drawing the plane into the field” away from the village, she said.

The jet was taking part in Clear Sky 2018, a joint military exercise with NATO members taking place October 8 through 19 in Western Ukraine. Other participants include the US, Belgium, the UK, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania.

When advertising the drills on his Facebook page, President Petro Poroshenko said NATO soldiers have “a lot to learn” from Ukrainians, and warned that, if Russia launched airstrikes against Ukraine, the cost would be “very high.”

https://www.rt.com/news/441431-ukrai...rash-american/