The Defense Department has identified two Air Force officers who were killed when their airplane crashed in Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.
The two officers have been identified as Lt. Col. Paul K. Voss, 46 and Capt. Ryan S. Phaneuf, 30. Pentagon officials said Lt. Col. Voss was from Yigo, Guam, while Capt. Phaneuf was from Hudson, New Hampshire.
Their E-11A jet, a military version of a civilian aircraft built by the Canadian company Bombardier, went down Jan. 27, 2020 in a section of Ghazni Province. The airmen’s bodies and a flight data recorder were reportedly recovered by U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials said local Afghans were the first on the scene and treated the bodies of the dead airmen with dignity and respect.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation but there’s no indication hostile fire was responsible, officials said.
Lt. Col. Voss was assigned to Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia while Capt. Phaneuf was assigned to 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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