All five crew members were rescued after a Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and F/A-18F Super Hornet both assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz crashed in unrelated incidents within 30 minutes of one another. The Super Hornet crew members ejected. The mishaps occurred as the Nimitz was operating in the South China Sea, and the Navy said all the crew members are “safe and in stable condition.”
Details of the accidents have not been released, but the Navy has stressed they were not related. The ship is on its way home to Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State after an extended deployment in the Middle East protecting commercial shipping from attacks by Houthi rebels. It’s the Nimitz’s final cruise before retirement.
