By Erika Hernandez
16 Oct 2024, 2:51 PM EDT
Military officials revealed this Wednesday that A US Navy fighter jet crashed east of Mount Rainier in Washington with two crew members on board.
The EA-18G Growler aircraft, from the 130th Electronic Attack Squadron, fell during a training flight Tuesday, officials at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island said in a statement reported by ABC News.
Search and rescue teams, including an MH-60S helicopter, left the station to examine the crash site and locate the crew, officials said.
“As of 7 p.m. on October 15, the status of the two crew members remained unknown,” the station said.
According to the statement, The cause of the accident is unknown.
The Growler aircraft is “the most advanced technology in airborne electronic attack and constitutes the Navy’s first line of defense in hostile environments,” according to the military.
Squadron 130 adopted the nickname “Zappers” when it was commissioned as Carrier Early Warning Squadron 13 in 1959. It was most recently deployed to the southern Red Sea, where it carried out seven pre-planned strikes against Houthi-held areas in Yemen. , according to a statement.
The Zappers also carried out some 700 combat missions “to degrade the Houthis’ ability to threaten innocent ships,” according to a news release announcing the squadron’s return to Washington in July.
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