Washington: The US Pacific Fleet verified that a US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet and an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter operating from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz crashed into the South China Sea on Sunday afternoon, just 30 minutes apart. This is an unusual event in the middle of the ocean.
The Navy said that all five people involved in the accidents lived. The three people on board the MH-60R helicopter were saved, while the two pilots of the Super Hornet were able to eject and were found soon after. It is said that all five are safe and in good health.
South China Sea – On October 26, 2025 at approximately 2:45 p.m. local time, a U.S. Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, assigned to the “Battle Cats” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 73 went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations
— U.S. Pacific Fleet (@USPacificFleet) October 26, 2025
Investigating the Cause of the Crashes
The Navy has started an official investigation to find out what caused the two incidents that happened during normal operations. There have been no more information revealed about the specific events or whether they were connected.
Officials said that the USS Nimitz, one of the Navy’s most famous aircraft carriers, was on its way back to its home port at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington State after being deployed in the Middle East for months. The carrier was part of the US reaction to Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacking commercial ships.
This is the last time the Nimitz will be used before it is taken out of service, ending decades of active service in global operations.
A string of recent naval aviation accidents
There have been a lot of accidents involving US Navy carriers in the past several months, and these wrecks are only the latest.
The USS Harry S. Truman had a lot of accidents while it was in the Middle East earlier this year:
The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg unintentionally shot down an F/A-18 fighter from the Truman in December.
Another F/A-18 fell from the hangar deck and into the Red Sea in April.
A plane missed the carrier’s landing ropes in May and flew overboard, forcing its pilots to jump out.
No one died in any of these events, which is a good thing. But the Navy hasn’t yet made public the full conclusions of the investigations into those prior crashes.
The two mishaps involving the USS Nimitz have brought up new questions about how to keep aircraft in good shape, how to keep carriers safe, and the stress of protracted deployments.