The Pentagon has identified the two pilots who died in the crash of a U.S. Air Force E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, aircraft in Afghanistan earlier this week. The announcement highlights the fact that all individuals who fly these highly specialized communications aircraft volunteer for this job and that there are so few of these planes that they're all forward-deployed in Afghanistan. This means that aviators have no chance to train directly on an E-11A in the United States before they head to Kandahar Airfield to begin flying actual operational sorties.
It's important to stress that there is no indication that this Air Force practice of soliciting volunteers who may have limited immediate experience on the E-11A or similar aircraft types in any way contributed to the mishap in Afghanistan on Jan. 27. Much of the circumstances about that crash and its immediate aftermath remain unclear.
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