US military: one of two crew recovered off Japan after mid-air collision is dead

[krispos42]

2. Mid-air refueling takes skill and practice.

In this case, the KC-130 unreels a long hose from one of its wings. The end of the hose has what looks like a badminton birdie on the end of it to stabilize the hose. The thirsty plane has a probe (either fixed or retractable) that the pilot has to shove into the birdie. he has to literally fly the probe on his plane into the birdie while both are bouncing around in the wake of the KC-130, and then hold it while fuel is transferred from the tanker into the fighter. They are in very close formation, and it looks like they were doing a night refueling, which I imagine is several times harder than a daylight one.

A terrible tragedy.