diff --git a/plugins/inventory/ec2.py b/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
index e001385dcc0..3b495d47071 100755
--- a/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
+++ b/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
@@ -244,7 +244,12 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
                 conn.APIVersion = '2010-08-31'
             else:
                 conn = ec2.connect_to_region(region)
-            
+
+        # connect_to_region will fail "silently" by returning None if the region name is wrong or not supported
+        if conn is None:
+            print("region name: %s likely not supported, or AWS is down.  connection to region failed." % region)
+            sys.exit(1)
+ 
             reservations = conn.get_all_instances()
             for reservation in reservations:
                 for instance in reservation.instances:
@@ -279,6 +284,11 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         else:
             conn = ec2.connect_to_region(region)
 
+        # connect_to_region will fail "silently" by returning None if the region name is wrong or not supported
+        if conn is None:
+            print("region name: %s likely not supported, or AWS is down.  connection to region failed." % region)
+            sys.exit(1)
+
         reservations = conn.get_all_instances([instance_id])
         for reservation in reservations:
             for instance in reservation.instances: