The U.S. Department of Defense has announced the death of 46-year-old Lt. Col. Paul K. Voss of Yigo Guam. He was killed in a plane crash in Afghanistan on Monday.
Fellow airman Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf of Hudson, New Hampshire also died in the crash.
They were in a Bombardier E-11A aircraft flying over a Taliban-controlled area in Ghazni Province in central Afghanistan. However, the Pentagon says there was no indication that the crash was caused by enemy fire.
A mechanical issue is believed to have caused the crash, according to a defense official. Another official told ABC News that the pilots had declared an in-flight emergency.
The bodies and the aircraft’s flight data recorder were recovered from the crash site by U.S. military personnel on Tuesday, who later destroyed the remnants of the aircraft, according to a statement from U.S. Forces Afghanistan.
Voss was assigned to the Headquarters Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia.
The 30-year-old Phaneuf was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
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