Series of errors led to Patriot shootdown

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A Central Command investigation has determined that two Patriot battery ground crews mistook an F-18 for an incoming missile and shot it down last year.

Navy pilot Lt. Nathan White, 30, was fired on by two Patriot air defense missiles on his return from an attack mission and was killed on April 2, 2003, during the invasion of Iraq. A second fighter he was flying with returned to the USS Kittyhawk aircraft carrier undamaged.

Central Command published an executive summary of its findings in the friendly fire investigation Friday. The unclassified version does not explain why the ground crews mistook a friendly aircraft for an enemy missile.

Patriot missiles were responsible for three of the war's five pilot deaths. Just prior to White's shoot down a British Tornado was attacked by the Patriot, killing both pilots. In a third incident, a Patriot missile battery had locked onto an American F-16. That aircraft fired on the radar in self-defense.

According to CENTCOM's report, a Patriot ground crew picked up White's plane and determined it to be a hostile missile. That information was forwarded to the air defense network coordination center. That center incorrectly correlated the missile track to the track of one of the F/A-18s and identified the second Navy aircraft as an "unknown threat."

At the same time another Patriot ground crew detected White's aircraft and believed it to be a missile aiming for the battery. The two erroneous identifications confirmed each other, and two Patriots were launched.