U.S. Military Suffers Fourth Major Air Crash in 15 Days: EA-18G Electronic Warfare Jet Lost

A U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler electronic warfare plane crashed while landing and was lost at sea on February 12, after having overflown its runway on a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier. The aircraft’s two pilots ejected into San Diego Bay and were quickly recovered before being transported to a local hospital. The incident marks the second crash of an EA-18G in under six months, with a prior crash having occurred in October during a routine training flight, resulting in the deaths of both crew. The latest incident marks the fourth crash of a U.S. Military aircraft in 15 days. On January 28 a U.S. Air Force F-35A was filmed crashing at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, while a day later a U.S. Army UH-60 Blackhawk transport helicopter collided with an American Airlines plane near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.

On February 6 three Pentagon contractors and a Marine were killed when a Super King Air 350 surveillance plane crashed in the Philippines. Other than crashes resulting in the losses of aircraft, incidents have included an F-22 forced to make an emergency landing at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, which marked the fifth such landing for the accident-prone fighters at the facility in less than a year. On January 30 a B-52H nuclear capable bomber was also forced to make an emergency landing at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Growing concerns have been raised since the beginning of the decade regarding the maintainability of the U.S. Armed Forces’ air fleet, with spates of high crash rates having occurred multiple times since then. Issues have at times affected particular aircraft at higher rates. In early 2024, for example, the U.S. Army lost four AH-64 Apache attack helicopters in accidents in under 44 days, including two in under three days.