Saudi Tornado IDS Crashed In Yemen

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Saudi Tornado IDS down in Yemen

By releasing an official statement, the Official Spokesman of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen acknowledged a Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) Tornado ground attack fighter jet crashed late in the evening on 14 February 2020. The Tornado was conducting close air support to units of the National Army of Yemen. The aircraft crashed in the area of operations in Al-Jawf Governorate, in northern Yemen. The two officers who were flying a Saudi fighter jet are missing after the incident.

On 15 and 16 February Iran-linked Houthi rebels claimed to have shot down the Tornado. The rebels released footage of what they called the launch of their "advanced surface-to-air missile" and the moment it purportedly struck the jet in the night sky, sending it crashing down in a ball of flames.

The Riyadh-led military coalition fighting the rebels said the two officers ejected from the plane before it crashed in northern Al-Jawf province Friday but that the rebels opened fire at them "in violation of international humanitarian law". The joint forces command of the Coalition holds the Houthi militias responsible for the lives and wellbeing of the Tornado air crew according to a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency late on Saturday 15 February. The statement did not specify whether the crew had survived or if they had been captured after the plane crashed in Houthi-controlled territory.

The RSAF operates the Tornado IDS. These are deployed to Khamis Mushayt (King Khalid Air Base) and Taif (King Fahd Air Base) in support of the air war over Yemen, but are originating from Dhahran (King Abdullah Aziz Air Base, near the Persian Gulf) and assigned to 11 Wing, 7sq, 75sq and 83sq.

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