None hurt in US jet, chopper crash at sea

USS Nimitz — File photo by Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines — A fighter jet and a helicopter operating from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz both crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other on Sunday afternoon, but nobody was hurt in what analysts called a “remarkable coincidence.”

The three crew members of the MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter were rescued, and the two aviators in the F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet ejected and were recovered safely, and all five “are safe and in stable condition,” the Navy Pacific Fleet said in a statement.

“All personnel involved are safe and in stable condition,” US Pacific Fleet spokesperson Cmdr. Matthew Alan Comer said in a statement to the Inquirer.

The causes of the two crashes were under investigation.

READ: 2 US warships deployed off Scarborough Shoal days after Chinese collision

‘Remarkable coincidence’

“I can’t think of a time when two dissimilar aircraft launched from the same vessel had mishaps so close together in apparently unrelated incidents,” said Ray Powell, a retired US Air Force colonel and South China Sea monitor. “It’s certainly a remarkable coincidence.”

Authorities have yet to specify the distance of the incidents from the nearest landmass, so it remains unclear whether they occurred in the West Philippine Sea — the part of the South China Sea within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone—or outside of it.

Powell observed: “There doesn’t seem to be any reliable indication of where the [USS Nimitz] was exactly,” as warships are not required to activate their Automatic Identification Systems, unlike civilian vessels like those belonging to coast guards.”

The USS Nimitz is returning to its home port in Naval Base Kitsap in Washington state after having been deployed to the Middle East for most of the summer as part of the US response to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial shipping.

The Nimitz, which is the US Navy’s oldest aircraft carrier in active service, has routinely conducted freedom-of-navigation patrols in the South China Sea. It is on its final deployment before decommissioning.

Beijing claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea, and has ignored a landmark 2016 ruling that invalidated such claims. The Philippines is also part of the “first island chain,” which experts view as the United States’ first line of defense against China’s expansion in the Pacific. — With a report from AP