BBC:
For the second time in just eight days, a US fighter jet has been lost to the Red Sea after falling from the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, US officials say.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet was attempting to land on the Truman’s flight deck on Tuesday when a manoeuvre failed, “causing the aircraft to go overboard”, an official told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
The two pilots inside the aircraft ejected, and sustained minor injuries in the incident. The jets themselves are reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars each.
“Both aviators safely ejected and were rescued by a helicopter assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 11,” the official told CBS.
It comes after another Super Hornet went overboard into the same sea last Monday in a separate incident.
It was “under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft”, a US Navy statement said. A sailor sustained minor injuries, and a tractor that had been towing the aircraft was also pulled into the water.
During the second incident, officials said there was a failure of an arrestment – referring to a cable that is used to help slow down a jet as it lands.
The incident is still under investigation, and the aircraft has yet to be recovered.
The jet may have tipped overboard after the aircraft carrier made a sharp turn while taking evasive action against Houthi militants in Yemen, US officials told CBS.
Just hours earlier on Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that the US would stop attacking the Iran-backed Houthis if the group stopped targeting shipping in the Red Sea.
The Truman has been involved in several incidents in its Red Sea deployment, including last December, when the USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down another F/A-18 fighter jet that was operating from the carrier. Both pilots survived.
