Local expert weighs in on military plane crash tied to MacDill Airforce Base that killed 6 service members

TAMPA - It was a KC-135 Strato-Tanker that went down over western Iraq on Thursday, killing six service members.

Three of them were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa but were stationed at Sumpter Smith Joint National Guard Base in Birmingham, Alabama.

Jim Cardoso is the Senior Director at USF’s Global and National Security Institute and a former Airforce pilot. He weighed in on the tragedy.

READ: MacDill Air Force Base announces the loss of three members of the 99th Air Refueling Squadron

What they're saying:

"McDill is one of the primary KC-135 bases of the United States Air Force, so tragically, it's not a surprise that some of our crews in the Tampa Bay area are involved in this accident," Cardoso said.

So far it is unclear what caused this crash.

Cardoso there will be multiple investigations.

"They will be very detailed in looking at the possible causes of this accident and doing the investigation," Cardoso said.

Big picture view:

The plane was deployed as a part of President Donald Trump's Operation Epic Fury. Its role was to refuel other planes midair.

"I wouldn't call this a non-standard increased risk mission," Cardoso said. "Any mission where you're getting two aircraft close to each other in the sky, there's some element of risk, but the airmen who execute this mission, train for it over and over and over."

He said the Airforce has top-notch maintenance practices for all aircraft.

"The pilots and air crew and the maintainers are even more focused and are ensuring that these aircraft are fully capable because you don't want anything to happen to an aircraft when it's over enemy territory," Cardoso said.

Cardoso said the Airforce needs to consider the age of its fleet.

This KC-135 was 60 years old but modernized.

"Our congressional appropriators need to look at how we replace some of those aircrafts and get that average age of the fleet down," Cardoso said.

Cardoso said the current average age of the Airforce fleet is the oldest it's ever been.