Navy jet, helicopter crash half-hour apart off carrier

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 18: The U.S Navy USS Nimitz (CVN-68), the world's oldest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier sails out of San Diego Bay to the Pacific Ocean to perform readiness drills before returning its homeport of Naval Base Kitsap on November 18, 2024 in San Diego, California. The ship is scheduled to be decommissioned in fiscal 2026. — The USS Nimitz, the world's oldest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, sails out of San Diego Bay in 2024

(Image credit: Kevin Carter / Getty Images)

What happened

A Navy fighter jet and helicopter based off the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said on social media. President Donald Trump Monday said “bad fuel” could be to blame for the “very unusual” dual crashes.

The MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and F/A-18F Super Hornet jet were on separate “routine operations” when they went down, the Navy said, and all five crew members involved “are safe and in stable condition.” Trump told reporters traveling with him to Japan on Air Force One that he did not think foul play was involved. “They think it might be bad fuel,” he said. “We’re gonna find out. Nothing to hide.”

The F/A-18 was “at least the fourth of the $60 million fighter jets the Navy has lost this year,” CNN said. The other three were destroyed in a “series of mishaps” involving another aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, The Associated Press said. Two F/A fighter jets “went overboard” into the Red Sea while the third was “mistakenly shot down” by the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg. The half-century-old USS Nimitz is traveling to its home port in Washington state before being decommissioned next year.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.