A Boeing C-135 Stratotanker / Stratolifter military aircraft known as KC-135 of the United States Air Force USAF configured as Air Tanker Transport for aerial refueling. (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Six service members were killed when their refueling aircraft “went down” in friendly airspace in western Iraq, according to U.S. Central Command.
“All six crew members aboard a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft that went down in western Iraq are now confirmed deceased. The aircraft was lost while flying over friendly airspace March 12 during Operation Epic Fury,” CENTCOM said Friday.
The KC-135 aircraft went down at approximately 2 p.m. ET on Thursday when two aircraft were involved in “an incident,” CENTCOM said in a brief statement, confirming that “one of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely.”
Gen. Dan Caine addressed the crashed refueling plane, saying the incident is being treated as an active rescue and recovery mission.
“The incident occurred over friendly territory in western Iraq while the crew was on a combat mission, and again, was not the result, as CENTCOM has said, was not the result of hostile or friendly fire,” Caine said Friday. “We’re still treating this as an active rescue and recovery operation, as CENTCOM announced this morning, four airmen have been recovered, and the Air Force and US Central Command will provide updates as information becomes available.”
The other aircraft involved was also a KC-135 tanker, according to a U.S. official.
The circumstances of the incident are currently under investigation and the identities of the service members who died in the incident are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified, officials said.
KC-135 aircraft are not equipped with parachutes and do not have ejection seats, which are primarily in fighter aircraft, officials have told ABC News.
Passengers and crew members of KC-135s instead are trained on how to exit the aircraft when it is on land or on water, officials said.
According to a 2008 Air Force profile of the tanker crews, the move to get rid of parachutes was made because the tankers “seldom have mishaps, and the likelihood a KC-135 crew member would ever need to use a parachute is extremely low.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
‘Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars’ host Ken Jennings (Disney/Eric McCandless)
Celebrity Jeopardy! is back with a twist. This season’s tournament, Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars, sees past celebrity contestants returning for another shot at the Jeopardy! crown. In addition, the three previous champs — Ike Barinholtz, Lisa Ann Walter and W. Kamau Bell — head right to the second round for a chance to defend their titles.
Host Ken Jennings tells ABC Audio he admires any celeb who comes to compete because “they’re really putting themselves out there.”
“Anything can happen on the Alex Trebek Stage,” he says, noting that while the celebs may be playing for charity, they still want to win and make a good impression.
“You know, they don’t wanna go viral with a wrong response,” he says. “This is not SNL Celebrity Jeopardy! where we’re just throwing them a bunch of softballs. They have to know real facts and do it fast.”
While the celebrities take the competition seriously, there’s certainly a looser feel on set, which Jennings believes is because the stars are more comfortable in front of a camera than regular Jeopardy! contestants are.
“On Celebrity, if anything they’re too comfortable,” he says. “They’re having a good time. They’re joking around.”
Jennings says one perk for the celebrity contestants is they get to prove to the public just how smart they are and that “they’re not just pretty faces.”
“It does seem unfair, by the way, that they have pretty faces,” Jennings jokes. “Like can’t Jeopardy! be our thing? Like, can’t nerds have one thing?”
He adds, “I always get a little upset when someone very talented is also good at Jeopardy! Like, come on.”
Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars debuts Friday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and will stream on Hulu the next day.
Billy Joel, Pink, and Willow Hart attend ‘The Music of Billy Joel’ at Carnegie Hall on March 12, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
It wasn’t 9 o’clock on a Saturday, but the crowd that shuffled into New York’s Carnegie Hall at 8 p.m. on Thursday night were definitely in the mood for a melody — written by Billy Joel.
An all-star cast lined up to pay tribute to The Piano Man during the latest installment of the annual Music Ofcharity concert series, which raises money for music education for underserved youth. Thursday night’s show netted $225,000 for the cause.
While Billy himself didn’t take the stage, he did watch from the balcony, accompanied by his friend Pink and her teenage daughter, Willow Sage Hart. He smiled and waved as the adoring crowd chanted, “Let’s go, Billy!”
And speaking of daughters, Billy’s eldest, Alexa Ray Joel, was on hand to perform for her dad, who she called “my musical hero.” She thanked Billy — and her mom and “golden muse,” Christie Brinkley — “for making me,” before singing “This Night,” from Billy’s 1983 album An Innocent Man. She was backed by Billy’s longtime touring band, who accompanied every artist on the bill, and also took their own turn in the spotlight to play “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant.”
While many artists delivered faithful renditions of Billy’s songs, such as Rob Thomas singing “Vienna,” Gavin DeGraw rocking through “Big Shot” and Train’s Pat Monahan doing “She’s Always a Woman,” others offered their own interpretations. Former 10,000 Maniacs singer Natalie Merchant turned “Allentown” into a somber piano ballad, while jazz-pop singer Sammy Rae did “River of Dreams” solo, accompanied only by her own ukulele.
Matt Nathanson sang an introspective solo acoustic guitar version of Billy’s hard-driving 1990 rocker “I Go to Extremes,” and followed that with a full-band rendition of “Miami 2017,” earning him one of the night’s many standing ovations. Another ovation came when legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman accompanied O.A.R. frontman Marc Roberge on “The Downeaster ‘Alexa.'”
The night concluded with an all-star version of “You May Be Right,” which had fans literally dancing in the aisles.
Here’s who performed what:
Yola — “Movin’ Out” Rob Thomas — “Vienna” Pat Monahan — “She’s Always a Woman” Mary Chapin Carpenter — “And So It Goes” Matt Nathanson — “I Go to Extremes” and “Miami 2017” Jon McLaughlin — “Everybody Loves You Now” Alexa Ray Joel — “This Night” Rufus Wainwright — “Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)” Ledisi — “Turn the Lights Back On” Marc Roberge & Itzhak Perlman — “The Downeaster ‘Alexa'” Bettye LaVette — “(He’s) Got a Way” David Rosenthal (Billy’s musical director) — “The Longest Time” piano sonata Music Will students and Wyclef Jean — “My Life” Neal Francis — “Stiletto” Sammy Rae — “River of Dreams” and “Get It Right the First Time” Natalie Merchant — “Allentown” Billy Joel Band — “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” Curtis Harding — “Uptown Girl” Gavin DeGraw — “Big Shot” Lawrence — “Only the Good Die Young” Andrew McMahon — “Piano Man” Ensemble — “You May Be Right”
A Boeing C-135 Stratotanker / Stratolifter military aircraft known as KC-135 of the United States Air Force USAF configured as Air Tanker Transport for aerial refueling. (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Four service members were killed when their refueling aircraft “went down” in friendly airspace in western Iraq, according to U.S. Central Command.
“Four of six crew members on board the aircraft have been confirmed deceased as rescue efforts continue,” CENTCOM said Friday.
The KC-135 aircraft went down at approximately 2 p.m. ET when two aircraft were involved in “an incident,” CENTCOM said in a brief statement Thursday, confirming that “one of the aircraft went down in western Iraq, and the second landed safely.”
Gen. Dan Caine addressed the crashed refueling plane, saying the incident is being treated as an active rescue and recovery mission.
“The incident occurred over friendly territory in western Iraq while the crew was on a combat mission, and again, was not the result, as CENTCOM has said, was not the result of hostile or friendly fire,” Caine said Friday. “We’re still treating this as an active rescue and recovery operation, as CENTCOM announced this morning, four airmen have been recovered, and the Air Force and US Central Command will provide updates as information becomes available.”
The other aircraft involved was also a KC-135 tanker, according to a U.S. official.
The circumstances of the incident are currently under investigation and the identities of the service members who died in the incident are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified, officials said.
KC-135 aircraft are not equipped with parachutes and do not have ejection seats, which are primarily in fighter aircraft, officials have told ABC News.
Passengers and crew members of KC-135s instead are trained on how to exit the aircraft when it is on land or on water, officials said.
According to a 2008 Air Force profile of the tanker crews, the move to get rid of parachutes was made because the tankers “seldom have mishaps, and the likelihood a KC-135 crew member would ever need to use a parachute is extremely low.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
People wait in long TSA lines as the partial government shutdown continues for several weeks at airports like Chicago OâHare in Chicago, IL, United States on March 09, 2026 (Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Transportation Security Administration rolled out a new video at airports across the country Friday warning travelers of longer-than-usual wait times and staffing shortages, blaming Democrats for the partial government shutdown.
“You may be experiencing longer-than-average wait times due to the ongoing Democrat shutdown of TSA and the Department of Homeland Security,” the agency’s video message says.
At several airports nationwide, passengers have seen security wait times ranging from 20-30 minutes to as long as two hours at certain points, with travelers being advised to arrive at the airport early to allow adequate time for screening.
The roughly 30-second video message was released as TSA officers begin receiving their first $0 paycheck Friday, with the length of the shutdown nearing a month. The message also encourages travelers to show gratitude toward the TSA officers.
“The TSA Officers you are interacting with have shown up to work despite having missed paychecks. Please take the opportunity to thank the dedicated men and women of the TSA when you fly today,” the video message says.
Assaults on TSA officers have increased during the shutdown, Acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl told ABC.
“We’ve seen increases in assaults on our TSA officers which is always completely unacceptable, particularly unacceptable right now,” he said in an interview. “And so we just ask our passengers to please be respectful, thank them because they’re doing an incredibly difficult job under incredibly difficult circumstances.”
Stahl said the agency has “zero tolerance” for such behavior and works with the law enforcement authorities, including the Department of Justice, so those responsible face ramifications for their actions.
Though the rate of unscheduled absences by TSA officers has more than doubled since the shutdown began, Stahl said there are no safety concerns about TSA’s operations and that the agency’s focus remains on the impact to wait times.
“We don’t have any significant concerns about the integrity of the screening process right now as it stands, but again this is going to continue to worsen as the days continue and we’re really focused and really urge Senate Democrats to get back to the drawing table, get back to negotiating table, so we can get back to normal operations,” Stahl said.
A similar video featuring outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was rolled out by the agency during last year’s government shutdown. It received pushback from several major airports that refused to play it, citing the Hatch Act — a law that restricts the political activities of federal employees, as well as some state and local employees who are involved in or work in federally funded programs.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked a fourth vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to fund the agency without any reforms to ICE and CBP.
The package would have provided funding for the Department of Homeland Security through September. The agency has been shut down since Feb. 14.
Ahead of the vote, Democrats once again attempted to get support to fund other agencies, besides ICE and CBP, that are a part of DHS and that have been shut down. After their effort to fund all other agencies besides CBP and ICE was blocked Wednesday by Republicans, Democrats took a piecemeal approach Thursday, making individual requests to pass funding for TSA, CISA, Coast Guard and FEMA.
“What Republicans are saying is that we want to hold TSA, our airports, the protection of our coastline, the defense of this nation from cyberattacks and our response to emergencies hostage to their determination to continue to fund a law enforcement operation at ICE that is out of control,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during a speech on the floor as part of the Democratic effort to pass the bills to fund the individual agencies.
Republicans blocked each of those efforts, arguing that the whole of DHS should be funded.
“To my Democrat colleagues, if you have a bill that you want to defund ICE with, put it on the floor. I guarantee you it will get voted down because it is an extremely unpopular position. We are not going to let you get to that result by way of holding everyone else hostage. If you want to support all the agencies in this negotiated bill you have a way to do it,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mont., said.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this story.
The official trailer for Dan Levy’s newest series has arrived. Netflix has released the first look at its new comedy thriller show Big Mistakes. It premieres to the service on April 9. Along with Levy, the show stars Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalf, Abby Quinn, Boran Kuzum and Jack Innanen. It follows two siblings who are in over their heads when their dying grandma accidentally gets them involved in organized crime …
The littlest guy on Family Guy now has his own show. FOX and Hulu have given a two-season order to Stewie, which will be a spinoff of Family Guy centered on the Griffin family’s youngest son. The animated comedy will follow Stewie Griffin through preschool, as well as his exploration of time and space …
Marshals has been renewed for season 2 at CBS. The Yellowstone spinoff has received an early pickup for a second season after only two episodes of season 1 have aired. The Taylor Sheridan show was the most-watched network original series premiere without a football lead since 2017 …
Riley Green’s Cowboy As It Gets Tour (Live Nation)
Riley Green has a steamy new duet out with Carly Pearce titled “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay.”
He also has a new tour to prepare for, as his Cowboy As It Gets run kicks off April 16 in Southaven, Mississippi.
“I’m taking out Justin Moore, who I’m a huge fan of, and several other artists that I love, and it’s gonna be great,” Riley says.
Drake White, Mackenzie Carpenter, Zach John King, Hannah McFarland and Adam Hood are the other artists who will join him along the way.
For the first time, Riley’s grappling with a new problem on tour — but it’s one he’s plenty happy to have.
“We got a lot of big songs now that we get to play, and I’m getting to this cool point in my career where I get to kind of pick through them,” he tells ABC Audio. “Like, I have to figure out which ones I want to play in my live show.”
Riley’s Cowboy As It Gets Tour is set to wrap Aug. 22 in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Mariah Carey’s one major career misstep, and though she says she used to hate it, she’s now excited to celebrate it.
That misstep was Glitter, her 2001 movie that had the misfortune of coming out 10 days after Sept. 11. It was panned by critics, audiences didn’t like it and it didn’t make any money, either. The soundtrack album fared better, but not on par with her past releases. However, Mariah tells Variety that since this year marks the 25th anniversary of Glitter, she’s got “plans for a deluxe and a reissue, or maybe just one, I don’t know.”
“We’re getting on top of it. I’m excited about it,” she tells Variety, adding that her feelings toward the project have changed over the years. “I used to hate it. I used to be so like, why did I do that?” she says, noting that it was “a disastrous flop,” made during what she described as “a tough time for me.”
But, she goes on to say, “[I]t became something that I really loved and it just sort of took on its own thing.”
Mariah also insists that she plans to eventually release her secret grunge album, Someone’s Ugly Daughter. The album’s songs were performed by Foo Fighters and Taylor Momsen at Mariah’s MusiCares Tribute earlier this year. She called that performance “one of the best things I’ve ever experienced,” adding, “I was flipping out.”
And speaking of rock, Mariah is on the ballot for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction for a third time, but she’s not holding her breath.
“Well, I mean, it would be fantastic, but I’m just like… Pftt. You know, if it happens, it happens,” she tells Variety. “And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I think it would be amazing.”
Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters performs with Violet Grohl at Glastonbury Festival 2023 on June 23, 2023 in Glastonbury, England. (Harry Durrant/Getty Images)
Dave Grohl has said he’s been “totally uninvolved” with his daughter Violet Grohl’s debut album, but he did impact her latest single in an indirect way.
As Violet tells the U.K.’s Radio X, her song “595” was inspired by a T-shirt advertising a phone sex line that she’d ordered on Etsy. However, the package containing the shirt was rerouted by Dave before it got to her.
“My dad actually opened up my package and saw the shirt and then hid it in his studio for a couple months,” Violet recalls. “I scoured the house looking for the shirt because it said it was delivered, and then I found it in a box in the studio.”
Violet also shares how she told her parents she’d signed a record deal over dinner.
“My dad can make a killer Sunday roast,” Violet says. “I’m pretty sure it was a Sunday roast.”
Violet’s debut album, Be Sweet to Me, drops May 29. Her dad, meanwhile, will release a new Foo Fighters album, Your Favorite Toy, on April 24.
