The fourth significant incident involving an aircraft carrier and the third loss of a fighter plane deployed with it since the battleship departed home last year occurred Tuesday when a Navy fighter jet failed to land on the carrier and crashed into the Red Sea.
The Navy claimed in a statement that the F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet, valued at about $67 million, fell overboard following an unsuccessful attempt to slow it down upon landing on the USS Harry S. Truman. According to the service, no one on the warship’s flight deck was hurt, and both of the jet’s aviators successfully evacuated and were retrieved at sea by helicopter with just minor injuries.
Following the loss of another jet, an F/A-18E, in an accident onboard the Truman last week, where the aircraft fell overboard after sailors lost control of it while towing it in the ship’s hangar bay, CNN reported the most recent occurrence earlier. Concerns over communication between warships and fighter planes in the area were raised in December when the USS Gettysburg, another Navy vessel, unintentionally shot down a third Truman fighter jet over the Red Sea.
Additionally, the service fired Navy Capt. Dave Snowden, Truman’s commanding officer, after the ship was engaged in a collision in the Mediterranean Sea in February. Navy Capt. Christopher Hill, who had recently finished deploying another carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, took his position.
Although no service members have been killed, the incidents have sparked concerns about the stress on the aircraft carrier’s crew and its capacity to handle a demanding deployment in which troops have been engaged in months-long combat with Houthi militants in Yemen, who have frequently attacked vessels in the area with drones and missiles. Senior U.S. military authorities are paying attention to the accidents, a defence official involved with the conversation said Tuesday night, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the delicate nature of the matter.
In order to guarantee that the Navy had two aircraft carriers available to fight the Houthis, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has twice extended the aircraft carrier’s mission since it departed its home in Virginia in September, most recently last week. President Donald Trump ordered the carrier to go on the front lines of a full-scale campaign against the Yemen-based extremist organization in March after it began attacking military and commercial boats in late 2023.
When the extremists refused to cease their attacks, the Biden government started attacking them in early 2024. The Trump administration said it intended to be more forceful and characterized that attempt as weak. In less than two months, it has struck around 1,000 Houthi targets in Yemen, according to defence authorities.
While providing few details, Trump administration officials have hailed the attack operation as a success. Following the Houthis’ pledge to cease assaulting ships, Trump said on Tuesday that he was cancelling the strikes. Officials from the administration connected the decision to a ceasefire declaration made by Omani authorities.
According to a defence official on Tuesday, senior defence officials are reviewing the investigations into the fighter aircraft shoot-down and the ship accident, and the findings may be made public shortly. According to him, the two more recent incidents involving the fighter planes will also be closely examined.
In November, the USS Carl Vinson, another aircraft carrier, sailed from San Diego. According to defence experts, it has been at sea in the area for a few weeks, namely in the Arabian Sea and the Arabian Gulf.
