The fighter jet from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier was landing on the flight deck "when the arrestment failed, causing the aircraft to go overboard," a defense official told The Hill. The arrestment is the hook system aircraft use to catch steel wire ropes on the flight deck as it lands, and it is unclear what part of the system was faulty.
As the fighter went overboard, its two pilots were forced to eject, but they were rescued by a search-and-rescue helicopter and only had minor injuries, with no flight deck personnel injured, according to the official.
The loss of the more than $60 million Super Hornet is the latest incident aboard the Truman as it engaged in a U.S. airstrike campaign against Houthi militants in Yemen, which began March 15 but appears to be paused following President Trump's announcement Tuesday that there is now a ceasefire between the two sides.
The ceasefire, mediated by Oman, has secured a tentative end to attacks on American ships in the Red Sea, but details are slim on the concessions made by both sides.
Still, the ceasefire allows the Trump administration to claim victory in clearing the pathway for commercial shipping and that served to justify the military campaign against the designated-terrorist group in Yemen.
Trump on Wednesday credited the U.S. strikes with bringing the Houthis to the table. Since mid-March, the U.S. military has said it has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen as part of Operation Rough Rider. The strikes have killed "hundreds" of Houthi fighters and leaders, including senior Houthi missile and UAV officials, and degraded their capabilities, Pentagon officials claimed late last month.
"We hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment… But we honored their commitment and their word, they gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting ships anymore and we honor that," Trump said during a swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office for his new ambassador to China, former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga).
The Truman aircraft carrier strike group has been in the Middle East region since this past fall, and in that time it has lost at least three F/A-18s. The first was shot down in the Red Sea in December when it was "mistakenly fired" upon by the USS Gettysburg, though both pilots ejected safely.
The Truman lost the second Super Hornet on April 28 when the jet "was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft" and it fell overboard, according to the Navy. Initial reports suggested that the carrier was forced to make a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, leading to the F/A-18 sliding off the deck.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
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