CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Jacquelyn Martin is an award-winning photojournalist with the AP, based in Washington since 2006. She covers politics at the White House and Congress and has circumnavigated the globe as a pool photographer. A skier since she was 3 years old, she is pleased to be covering Women’s Alpine at her first Winter Olympics.
Here’s what she had to say about this extraordinary photo.
U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn — who has arguably been the biggest story of the Winter Olympics — crashed during her fifth Olympic Games. It ended her Olympic dream after she competed on a rebuilt right knee and a badly injured left knee. The 41-year-old skier has become an icon of the sport, especially to women like me who are also in their 40s. It was shocking to witness this crash.
Our team had scouted this position as a good location for a scenic image showing the racers among the gorgeous Dolomites. It was mainly planned as a pretty image to add to the action images being taken by my colleagues downhill. My priority was to make a strong image of Vonn and use the mountains to give the viewer a sense of place. I took three chairlifts and skied into place, then walked around the area to try to find a clean and interesting backdrop. Using telephoto lenses from across a mountain covered in waist deep snow, I used an extremely high shutter speed and put the camera on a high frame rate as I would only get a split second to capture images of her and the other athletes as they whizzed by. I was set up to capture peak action, and I was especially keen to capture a strong image of Vonn competing.
The image shows the split second in which Vonn spun irrevocably out of control. Her body language shows the viewer that something is wrong, while the beauty of the natural surroundings contrasts with the gravity of the moment. She’s surrounded by the white clouds above and snow below, spending a split second in the air before crashing to the ground.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The U.S. military says a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting operations against Iran crashed in western Iraq and rescue operations are underway.
The U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” and that the other plane landed safely.
Here’s what is known so far about the tanker, which is the fourth publicly acknowledged U.S. aircraft to crash during the war against Iran:
The KC-135 Stratotanker is a U.S. Air Force aircraft used to refuel other planes in midair, allowing them to travel longer distances and maintain operations longer without landing. The plane is also used to transport wounded personnel during medical evacuations or conduct surveillance missions, according to military experts.
Based on the same design as the Boeing 707 passenger plane, the tanker has been in service for more than 60 years, supporting the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps as well as allied aircraft, according to an Air Force description. The aging plane is set to be phased out as the air force receives a full complement of next-generation KC-46A Pegasus tankers.
Despite upgrades over the years, the KC-135s' age has fueled concern about their reliability and durability.
“The last of these planes were produced in the 1960s,” said Yang Uk, a security expert at South Korea’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He added that the transition to the KC-46A has progressed more slowly than expected.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the Air Force last year had 376 KC-135s, including 151 on active duty, 163 in the Air National Guard and 62 in the Air Force Reserve.
A basic KC-135 crew has three people: a pilot, co-pilot and boom operator. Nurses and medical technicians are added in aeromedical evacuation missions.
Refueling typically happens at the back of the plane, where the boom operator is located. A fuel boom is lowered to connect with fighters, bombers or other aircraft. On many of the planes, the boom operator works lying face down while looking out of a window on the underside of the plane.
Some KC-135s can also refuel planes from pods on their wings. The tankers also have room above the fuel stores to carry cargo or passengers if needed.
Refueling tankers could play an increasingly important role if the Iran war drags on, as U.S. aircraft may need to fly longer missions to pursue Iranian forces retreating deeper into the country, said Yang.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties from the crash in Iraq. A U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the developing situation, said the plane was carrying at least five crew members.
A second U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the other plane involved in the incident was also a KC-135. Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., wrote on X that the other plane landed safely in Israel.
The U.S. Central Command did not elaborate on the circumstances of the crash, but said it “was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”
Yang said it would be rare for a refueling tanker to be downed by enemy fire because such operations are usually conducted in the rear of combat zones.
The crash came after three U.S. F-15E fighter jets were mistakenly downed last week by friendly Kuwaiti fire.
KC-135s have been involved in several fatal accidents. The most recent happened on May 3, 2013, when a KC-135R crashed after takeoff south of Chaldovar, Kyrgyzstan while taking part in the war in Afghanistan.
In that crash, the crew experienced problems with the plane’s rudder, according to a U.S. Air Force investigation. While they struggled to stabilize the plane, the tail section broke away and the plane exploded midair, killing all three crewmembers onboard.
The most serious mid-air collision involving the plane happened in 1966, when a B-52 bomber carrying nuclear bombs struck a tanker near Palomares, Spain.
The accident caused the tanker to crash, killing four onboard. The disaster led to an extensive decontamination effort to clean up nuclear material dispersed when conventional explosives in the hydrogen bombs detonated after hitting the ground.
Schreck reported from Bangkok. AP writers Ben Finley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed.
FILE - A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker refueling tanker aircraft takes off from the Kadena Air Base airfield in Kadena town, west of Okinawa, southern Japan, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
FILE - A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft performs a flyover during the national anthem before an NCAA college football game between Central Florida and Georgia Tech, Sept. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
