U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet Has Crashed in the Philippine Sea. Naval Aviators Ejected Safely.

Published on: June 18, 2020 at 5:14 PM
File photo of an F/A-18F Super Hornet, from the “Black Knights” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 154, lands on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), July 24, 2017.

A Super Hornet of Carrier Air Wing 11 operating from USS Theodore Roosevelt has just crashed. Both aviators ejected safely.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Carrier Air Wing 11 crashed while conducting routine flight operations in the Philippine Sea on Jun. 18, 2020. Both crew members aboard the aircraft ejected safely and were quickly recovered by a helicopter assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 8 aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). They are on board the U.S. aircraft carrier and in good condition.

The incident is currently under investigation.

Although this has not been confirmed, the only squadron aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt to operate the two-seater F variant of the Super Hornet is the VF-154 “Black Knights” (modex 1xx).

The Theodore Roosevelt returned to sea toward the end of May after being docked in Guam for two months by the Covid-19 pandemic: the coronavirus saw 1,200 positives and one died among the sailors .

The Super Hornet crash in the Philippine Sea is the second U.S. military aircraft to crash this week:  on Monday Jun. 15, a U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle belonging to the 493rd Fighter Squadron “Grim Reapers” of the 48th Fighter Wing from RAF Lakenheath, crashed into the North Sea off the coast of the UK. The pilot, 1st Lt. Kenneth “Kage” Allen, was killed in the crash.



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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
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