According to US Navy spokesman - Lieutenant Jackie Parashar, the incident occurred at 10:00 a.m. (local time). At that time, the F/A-18 Super Hornet suddenly plunged into the sea after takeoff.
Ms. Parashar said that this was a routine flight and the pilot on the Super Hornet, from Fighter Squadron 83, promptly launched the escape seat and fell into the sea.
After that, search teams were quickly deployed, and the pilot was rescued at 11:21 (local time). Although the pilot's condition has not been confirmed, he was taken to the hospital for a health check.
Parashar spokesman said the cause of the crash is being investigated and the plane had not yet been salvaged from the water.
The 83rd Fighter squadron is based at Oceana Naval Station in Virginia Beach.
Notably, this is the 6th F/A-18 that the US Navy has lost in the past 10 months and the first incident occurred in October 2024. At that time, the two pilots were killed when a EA-18G Growler (a variation of the F/A-18) crashed near Rainier Mountain, Washington.
Then, in December 2024, the US Central Command reported that a Super Hornet operating on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea had been accidentally shot by the cruiser USS Gettysburg.
In February 2025, another Growler crashed into San Diego Bay in Southern California.
Until April and May this year, the two Super Hornet ships fell into the Red Sea from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. The first incident occurred when the plane was being towed into the storage facility, while the second incident occurred due to the airline's brake pad system having problems when the plane tried to land.
According to the US Navy, the cost of producing 1 Super Hornet is about 67 million USD. The August 20 incident raised the total damage in the first 10 months of this force to 402 million USD.
