(28 Mar 1999) English/Nat
A U-S stealth fighter has been lost over Yugoslavia as NATO expanded its air assault by ordering its forces to attack tanks, artillery and troops in Kosovo.
The Pentagon confirmed that the pilot of the plane has been rescued, but refused to elaborate on his condition or the circumstances of his rescue.
The Pentagon spokesman, Ken Bacon, said the pilot of the F-117-A stealth fighter and the team that rescued him in Yugoslavia were all safe.
He also says the authorities don’t know at this point what caused the plane to go down whether it was shot down or malfunctioned. Serb officials have claimed the plane was shot down.
Bacon also wouldn’t reveal details of today’s rescue operation.
He says there may be other times during the NATO attacks when pilots may have to be rescued — so he doesn’t want Serbs to find out the techniques used.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This plane was reported missing at about three o’clock, our time, this afternoon. From that time until the moment we learned the pilot was safe and out of Yugoslav airspace we have concentrated on nothing but rescuing that pilot. We will talk to the pilot, we will talk to the other people in the package in due time but I think it’s premature now to make any judgement about why this plane crashed."
(Q)"Can you tell me how long he was on the ground?"
"I’m afraid I can not give you any details like that and I won’t, precisely because we have said from the very beginning that this is a perilous environment, the Serbs have a robust air defence system and I don’t say that to pre-judge why this plane came down. We do not know why this plane came down, we do not know why it came down."
SUPER CAPTION: Ken Bacon, Pentagon Spokesman
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well first I’d point out that the Serbs have lost five planes and none of those pictures have appeared on Serb T.V. that I’m aware of and they certainly have not handed the pictures out to CNN and the other American networks. The point to make here is that we will continue this mission. We are undeterred by this. We knew that we were flying into a risky environment and we will continue to fly in a way that minimises the risk to our pilots while increasingly our ability to perform our mission and our mission is to diminish Milosevic’s ability to continue his murderous ways in Kosovo. Those ways are continuing today, there are signs that, in fact, they’ve been intensifying and we will intensify our efforts to stop that."
(Q)"Ken, are you concerned about the loss of stealth technology?"
"Well from the pictures I saw on the television tonight I’m not sure there’s going to be much left. This is highly sophisticated technology, obviously, and is not easy to reproduce."
SUPER CAPTION: Ken Bacon, Pentagon Spokesman
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"First of all we have no way of knowing yet whether it was shot down. But second this plane has performed hundreds and hundreds of missions over Iraq through very dense air defences, it has flown very well over and through the very dense defences in Yugoslavia and it will continue to be a mainline plane in this operation.
(Q)"Can you say what time the rescue was complete?"
"No"
(Q) "When will we get more details about the pilot?"
"Probably not before tomorrow."
(Q) "Will you talk about the condition of the pilot?"
"I don’t know of his condition at this stage, I don’t know his condition"
SUPER CAPTION: Ken Bacon, Pentagon Spokesman
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