On Monday, the United States Navy revealed that an F/A-18 fighter aircraft, along with a towing tractor, had fallen off an aircraft carrier and plunged to the bottom of the Red Sea. The Red Sea has an average depth of 1,600 feet, making recovery of the aircraft unlikely.

There were no deaths or serious injuries reported.

An F/A-18 fighter jet rolled off the side an aircraft carrier and sank to the bottom of the Red Sea, the Navy announced on Monday.

There was one enlisted crew member aboard the jet and a second enlisted crew member inside the tractor when the incident occurred.

Both personnel were able to jump out in time with only one person sustaining a minor injury, according to officials.

In the extraordinary mishap attributed to human error, the $70 million jet was being towed out of the hanger bay of the USS Harry S. Truman when the crew lost control.

Details are sparse, but it appears that the aircraft was being towed towards an outboard elevator to be raised to the flight deck when the tractor operator somehow lost control of the tractor. 

Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military newspaper, reported that the carrier made a sharp turn that may have caused the tractor operator to lose control.

Sailors were towing an F/A-18E Super Hornet in the hangar bay Monday when the crew “lost control of the aircraft,” the Navy said. The carrier made a “hard turn,” according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The maneuver, the official said, was a contributing factor in the loss of the jet and towing tractor. One sailor sustained a minor injury in the incident.

Fighter jets are routinely towed across the hangar deck to park them for flight operations or other work. It is unclear whether there will be an effort to recover the jet, which costs about $60 million, according to The Associated Press.

The USS Harry S. Truman is a Nimitz-class supercarrier. These ships have an outboard elevator on the port (left) side of the ship that raises aircraft from the hangar bay to the flight deck; if this plane was, as appears to be the case, being moved towards the lower elevator when the ship made a sharp turn to starboard (right) then the tractor operator would be facing an expanse of the Red Sea with the ship leaning hard in that direction. This is speculation, but it would seem to fit what has been reported.

The Harry S. Truman has been plagued with problems of late, including a collision with an Egyptian merchant ship.

See Also: US Navy: Super-Carrier, Merchant Ship Collide in Mediterranean Sea

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In February, following the collision, the aircraft carrier's commander, Captain David Snowden, was relieved of command due to a "loss of confidence in his ability to command." Snowded was replaced by Captain Christopher Hill, the commanding officer of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), who will serve as an interim commander.

The carrier has been involved in strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen. As we reported at the time, the Houthis responded by attempting to attack the Truman with drones and ballistic missiles. Those attacks were not successful.

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