What happened when a tiny propellor plane met a US aircraft carrier in a warzone | CNN

All was calm above the clouds over the Arabian Sea, and Sam Rutherford’s small propeller plane was cruising at about 120 miles per hour. One Direction was playing on the cockpit speaker. Until an American voice came over the radio. “You are approaching a coalition warship in international waters. Request you establish communication, identify yourself.” Flying south of Iran, Rutherford and co-pilot Shannon Wong had attracted the attention of the US military, which was newly at war in the Middle East. “So we just got buzzed by an F-16,” says a surprisingly calm Rutherford in video capturing the moment posted on Instagram. (As he later made clear in his post, it was actually an F/A-18 Hornet.) A day earlier, when the US and Israel launched their war with Iran, Rutherford – a former helicopter pilot in the British military – had been in a similar position, flying over the United Arab Emirates. Back then, on the Piper PA-28’s radio, he could hear the calls of nearby airliners looking for places to land quickly, as the Persian Gulf became an active war zone. Many diverted to his destination, the Omani capital Muscat, a usually quiet airport, he told CNN. After landing, he

Apr 12, 2026 → Apr 12, 2026