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Patriot Missile System Misclassified US Navy Aircraft, Killing Pilot Upon Approval to Fire

US Navy's Patriot missile system misidentified an American Navy F/A-18C Hornet as an enemy projectile, prompting an operator to fire two missiles at the aircraft, which killed the pilot.

Date it happened
2003-04-02
Organisation involved
US Navy
Product, system or model
"Patriot is a long-range, high-altitude, all-weather system designed to defeat advanced threats, including aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles...Multifunction phased array radar
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This incident was imported from AI Incident Database and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.

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