Two US Navy aircraft from USS Nimitz go down in South China Sea

Two U.S. Navy plane from the usNimitz — a Sea Hawk helicopter and an F/A-18 Tremendous Hornet fighter jet — crashed over the South China Sea throughout separate “routine operations” on Sunday, with all 5 crew members rescued and in secure situation because the Navy investigates each incidents.

The US Pacific Fleet – the Navy’s largest operational command – mentioned in a submit on (CVN 68).

Search and rescue groups from Provider Strike Group 11, working alongside the Nimitz, rapidly launched restoration efforts and safely recovered all three helicopter crew members from the water.

Officers mentioned the crew was returned to the provider for medical analysis and was later confirmed to be in secure situation.

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About half-hour after the helicopter incident, a Nimitz F/A-18F Tremendous Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 22’s “Preventing Redcocks” additionally crashed within the South China Sea throughout flight operations.

Search and rescue groups once more responded rapidly and recovered the plane’s two crew members, who efficiently ejected earlier than the plane hit the water. Each pilots had been transported again to the Nimitz and are reported to be in secure situation.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet mentioned in an announcement that each one 5 service members concerned within the crashes are protected and accounted for.

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On this handout photograph offered by the Navy Visible Information Service, the Nimitz-class plane provider USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) departs at sea after a port go to to Naples, Italy, Oct. 21, 2006. (Miguel Angel Contreras/U.S. Navy by way of Getty Pictures)

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The causes of each incidents stay beneath investigation and the Navy has not launched any extra particulars about climate circumstances, doable mechanical issues or the character of the coaching missions being carried out on the time of the crashes.

As investigators attempt to decide what led to the 2 accidents, operations have continued aboard the usNimitz because the plane provider continues to deploy to the Indo-Pacific area.

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An MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter lands aboard the plane provider USS Nimitz within the South China Sea on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, as Nimitz of the U.S. seventh Fleet carried out operations. The Japan-based seventh Fleet mentioned Sunday that the usNimitz plane provider strike group and the thirteenth Marine Expeditionary Unit carried out “built-in expeditionary strike operations” within the South China Sea. (Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class Justin McTaggart/US Navy by way of AP)

The Nimitz — the Navy’s oldest lively plane provider — serves because the centerpiece of Provider Strike Group 11, which routinely conducts freedom of navigation and maritime safety operations within the South China Sea, waters which have grow to be more and more contentious amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China.

The incidents come because the Nimitz makes its last deployment, capping off greater than fifty years of service since its commissioning in 1975. The plane provider was beforehand concerned in Operation Eagle Claw, the failed 1980 mission to rescue American hostages in Tehran.

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The crashes additionally coincided with President Donald Trump’s go to to Asia. The president spent Sunday night time in Malaysia, positioned on the southern fringe of the South China Sea, and was scheduled to go away for Japan on Monday.