Pilots, crew of AC-130 gunship acknowledged confusion before striking Kunduz hospital

The minutes leading up to the U.S. bombing of a Doctors Without Borders MSF hospital bombing in Kunduz, Afghanistan, were filled with hesitation and uncertainty, according to a U.S. Central Command report released Friday. 

As the The pilots and crew in command of the AC-130 gunship — an aircraft armed with side-firing cannons and guns — flew flying toward their intended target Oct. 3, a Taliban command center some 400 yards from the civilian hospital, they did not fully understand presumed target location in Afghanistan did not fully understand the orders they had received prior to the Oct. 3 strike, according to conversations between crew members and ground forces described labeled within the report. The airmen had been dispatched on Oct. 3 to hit a Taliban command center some 400 yards from the hospital. 

The crew took off without "any printed current operational graphics showing the planned operating area," the report said. And due to communication malfunction, they could not receive any additional information into "the AC-130 guidance systems containing the proper data for the Kunduz area." because of a communication malfunction, the report noted.  

After the crew returned from a second refueling in the area, the navigator, not identified in the report, established a radio communication with the primary jJoint tTerminal aAttack cController, or JTAC, for the ground forces on the ground. The JTAC He provided the general location of interest for the aircraft. Line of sight was also not working because of a battery shortage. But, as the sensor operator noted, that location turned out to be "the middle of this field with a bunch of small buildings" on it.

The crew was then advised their intended target compound they should pursue, the headquarters of the National Directorate of Security headquarters building, was under Taliban control, and that "nine personnel were observed as hostile." The mission objective they learned the objective was to clear the compound of National Directorate of Security headquarters building, believed to be occupied by insurgents.

The report notes that sSome minutes later, the sensor operator once again questioned the location they had identified, which in turn was the Doctors Without Borders hospital location. He provided the crew with a new target, the NDS facility.  while  was observing to be the intended hostile area, as the the navigator continued to focus on the hospital location. 

The navigator only answered, "Copy," while continuing to focus on the hospital location. to the sensor operator after he had described what he was observing. The pilot did not answer. 

The sensor operator once again reassessed the location and "clearly stated to the crew that the grid position placed his sensor directly on top of a different compound (the NDS facility) not the open field or hospital," the report said.   

The report notes the navigator did not pass on the sensor operator's information onto an authority, unnamed, but instead asked for a description of the target. Someone answered:

The crew, upon looking more closely, discussed among themselves which compound better matched the description they had of the targetof the it matched the Doctor's Without Border's hospital better than the NDS.  At this time, ground forces were planning to move as backup to secure the NDS facility after its takedown. 

As the minutes ticked down, and as mMore inconsistencies arose— some of the crew even questioned mission tobjectives, according to the report  — were observed, as the crew began to gear up the aircraft for a with the intent to strike. Six minutes before the crew opened fire, until strike, tTthe navigator was told by an unnamed authority to "do a go for a PAX cocktail," during their strike, which he did not understand. The ensuing conversationHe received this answer, which showed  revealed the crew was still foggy on the exact location of the target:

Even with a broken conversation over the airwaves, an unidentified individual  It was eventually verified the AC-130 should strike a "T-shaped building." 

At approximately 2:08 A.M.a.m, the AC-130 gunship — an aircraft armed with side-firing cannons and guns — fired the first rounds were fired at the compound, which tore into the also fired into the roof of the Doctor's Without Border's trauma center — the T-shaped building. 

A total of 211 rounds had been fired into the compound, according to the report, killing 42 people. The compound received 211 rounds fired, the report said.  

No criminal charges have been leveled against U.S. military personnel for the mistakes that killed 42 people, U.S. Gen. Joseph Votel, the new head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters on Friday. Votel said that the trauma center was on a no-strike list but that the gunship crew didn't have access to the list.