The downing of an Israeli F-16 fighter jet earlier this month by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile was the result of a "professional error" by the Israeli crew, the Israeli Air Force said on Sunday.
An IAF investigation found that an anti-aircraft missile shot down the Israeli warplane while it was returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria on Feb. 10. The incident was triggered by an Iranian drone incursion into Israeli airspace and was the most serious confrontation yet between Israel and Iranian-backed forces in Syria.
The drone was shot down by an Apache helicopter, and Israel swiftly launched warplanes to target the drone's mobile control ground station in Syria.
A senior IAF officer told reporters that out of a number of jets that took part in the mission, one plane did not deploy countermeasures and was hit. It crashed in northern Israel after the pilot and navigator ejected from it.
"In the operational theater, there were a number of planes that did indeed defend themselves against the Syrian [fire] while completing their mission. One of the planes that did not defend itself was hit," the officer said.
A summary of the investigation released by the military said that the crew had chosen "to complete the mission and not defend themselves sufficiently. Their actions did not correlate with standard procedure while under enemy fire."
The pilot suffered serious injuries during the ejection from the U.S.-built jet. The navigator, who was also hurt, has returned to active duty, the officer said.
The crew should have defended themselves as a priority over completing the offensive mission, the officer said. He said they had sufficient information at hand to carry out the mission successfully.
He said the "heart of the event" was "the hiatus between their completing the mission successfully and taking defensive measures and ensuring survivability. The mission was completed successfully and still, the plane should not have been downed, that is the standard we expect, and we train for this."
Russia, with which Israel communicates regularly to avoid aerial confrontations over Syria, had no connection to the launching of the drone, the officer said.
"There was no Russian involvement in the incident," he said.
