For the second time in eight days, a fighter jet was lost in the Red Sea after it went overboard from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier Tuesday, two U.S. officials told NBC News.
There were only minor injuries after the two-seater F/A-18F Super Hornet went off the deck as it was landing around 9:45 p.m. local time Tuesday (early afternoon ET) and crashed into the sea, the officials said.
The two aviators aboard ejected after the failed landing, in which the aircraft failed to catch the wire, known as a “failed arrestment,” one of the officials said. The incident is under investigation.
An official said that based on initial reporting, the tail hook failed to hook the wire that slows down the aircraft, which continued to accelerate toward the bow and went into the water.
It was an F/A-18F, the officials said. Just over a week ago, another fighter jet, a $67 million F/A-18E, was lost from the Harry S. Truman.
That Super Hornet, along with the tow tractor that was pulling it, fell off the ship on April 28, the office of the Navy chief of information in Bahrain said in a statement. It “was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft,” the Navy said.
An investigation is underway, it said.
