Second Navy fighter jet crashes into Red Sea, pilots forced to eject

The Navy has lost a second F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, a week after another jet sank into the waters, a Defense official confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday.

An F/A-18 fighter jet was landing on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier “when the arrestment failed, causing the aircraft to go overboard,” the official said. 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 failed.

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 engages in a U.S. airstrike campaign against Houthi militants in Yemen, which began March 15.

The aircraft carrier has lost at least three F/A-18 since December, when that first jet was “mistakenly fired” upon and downed in the Red Sea 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.

The carrier also had to undergo repairs earlier this year following a February collision with a merchant vessel near Egypt that led to the vessel’s commander being relieved. 

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted Navy ships in the Red Sea since the militants began attacking commercial and military vessels in the waterway in November 2023, shortly after Israel began its brutal campaign against Hamas in Gaza. 

President Trump announced Tuesday that a ceasefire had been reached with the Houthis and that they would no longer attack ships in the Red Sea, though it’s unclear if the rebel group has agreed.