Washington (AFP) – A US warplane plummeted into the Red Sea when trying to land on the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, a defense official said Wednesday, the second jet lost from the ship in just over a week. The F/A-18F Super Hornet — which cost about $67 million — went overboard Tuesday due to a failure in the procedure for aircraft to catch a wire with a hook to help them stop after landing. “The arrestment failed, causing the aircraft to go overboard,” the defense official said.
“Both aviators safely ejected and were rescued,” the official said, adding that they had minor injuries. It is the second F/A-18 operating off the Truman to be lost in recent days. On April 28, a similar F/A-18E fell off the carrier when the crew that was towing it in the hanger lost control of the plane. One sailor sustained a minor injury in that incident, which also saw a tow tractor lost overboard. Late last year, another 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.
And in February, the Truman itself suffered damage when it collided with a merchant vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near Egypt’s Port Said.
– Yemen ceasefire – In addition to the lost warplanes and damage, a US official said last week that seven MQ-9 Reaper drones — which cost around $30 million apiece — had been lost in the Yemen area since March 15. 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.
The Iran-backed Huthis began attacking merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in late 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, which has been devastated by the Israeli military following a shock Hamas attack in October of that year. The United States started targeting the Huthis in 2024 under Joe Biden, and President Donald Trump’s administration on March 15 launched a new wave of near-daily strikes.
On Tuesday, Trump said that the Huthis had agreed to stop their attacks and that Washington would in turn halt strikes on the rebels, which have left 300 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Huthi figures. “They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore,” the US president said, before mediator Oman said the two sides had agreed a ceasefire.
© 2024 AFP
