Deborah Akinyosoye
A multi-million-dollar US warplane failed to land on the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and plummeted into the Red Sea on Tuesday, the US military said, the second jet lost from the ship in just over a week.
The two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet, worth around $67 million, went overboard after an unsuccessful attempt to slow it down as it landed, the US Central Command said.
A defense official told AFP the hook of the aircraft failed to catch the arresting wire on the aircraft carrier.
“The arrestment failed, causing the aircraft to go overboard,” the official said, adding “both aviators safely ejected and were rescued by the search and rescue helicopter.”
“The aviators were evaluated by medical personnel and assessed to have minor injuries. No flight deck personnel were injured.”
It is the second F/A-18 operating off the Truman to be lost in just over a week.
Another jet fell off the same carrier on April 28 in an accident that injured one sailor, and also dragged a tractor that was towing the fighter plane into the sea.
And late last year, a F/A-18 operating off the Truman was lost after it was mistakenly shot down by the USS Gettysburg guided missile cruiser. Both pilots survived that incident.
The Truman is one of two US aircraft carriers operating in the Middle East, where US forces have been hammering Yemen’s Huthi rebels with strikes since mid-March in an attempt to end the threat they pose to ships in the region. Mediator Oman said Tuesday the United States and the Huthis had agreed a ceasefire.