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WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2001 – An Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber crashed at about 11:30 a.m. EST into the Indian Ocean 30 miles north of the British base of Diego Garcia, Pentagon officials announced Dec. 12.
The Navy destroyer USS Russell recovered the plane's four crew members. U.S. Central Command officials had said earlier that a KC-10 refueling plane was keeping watch on the ditched crew by circling their location. The crashed bomber is the first U.S. fixed-wing aircraft lost in the conflict. "This underscores what we try to remember all the time," said Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke. "The men and women of the U.S. military put their lives at risk every single day. We're very grateful for that and we are thinking of them." B-1s have been used in the skies over Afghanistan since the beginning of the campaign, officials said.
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