USS Truman plane service loses $60M fighter jet in Purple Sea, Navy says

The USS Harry S. Truman misplaced an F/A-18E Tremendous Hornet fighter jet that was being towed on Monday within the Purple Sea, the Navy mentioned.

The fighter jet slipped off the hangar deck of the plane service, deployed to the Center East, as sailors had been towing the plane into place within the hangar bay, the Navy said.

The crew members who had been within the pilot seat of the Tremendous Hornet and on the small towing tractor each jumped out earlier than the jet and the tug went into the Purple Sea. One sailor sustained a minor harm, and all personnel are accounted for, the Navy mentioned. An investigation is underway.

“The F/A-18E was actively below tow within the hangar bay when the transfer crew misplaced management of the plane. The plane and tow tractor had been misplaced overboard,” the Navy mentioned in a press release. The jet was a part of Strike Fighter Squadron 136.

“Sailors towing the plane took speedy motion to maneuver away from the plane earlier than it fell overboard,” the Navy mentioned.

Fighter jets are routinely towed across the hangar deck to park them the place they’re wanted for any flight operations or different work. It’s unclear whether or not there will probably be an effort to get better the jet, which prices about $60 million. 

The Truman has been deployed to the Center East for months and has just lately been concerned in stepped-up army operations towards the Yemen-based Houthi rebels. U.S. Central Command has mentioned that the army has performed every day strikes, which have been performed by fighter jets, bombers, ships and drones.

The Truman’s deployment has already been prolonged as soon as by Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth by a couple of month.

In February, the plane service was in a collision with a merchant vessel within the Mediterranean Sea close to the doorway to the Suez Canal in Egypt. There have been no studies of accidents or flooding after the collision, a Navy spokesperson mentioned in a press release. Capt. Dave Snowden, who was accountable for the USS Truman on the time of the collision, was later fired.

The USS Harry S. Truman is the Navy’s ninth nuclear-powered plane service and was launched on Sept. 13, 1996, in response to the department. The 1,092-foot-long ship can journey over 30 knots per hour, can carry about 90 plane and might accommodate greater than 6,000 crew members.

The Navy mentioned Monday that the plane service group and its air wing “stay totally mission succesful.”