A U.S jet fighter and a helicopter have crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other, the US Navy said.
Three crew members of the MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter were rescued after they went down with the aircraft.
Two aviators in the F/A-18F Super Hornet jet fighter ejected and were recovered safely after the plane “went down” while “conducting routine operations”.
The navy said the crashes happened about 2:45pm on Sunday, local time.
All five navy personnel “are safe and in stable condition,” the navy said in a statement.
The causes of the two crashes were under investigation, the statement said.
The two aircraft are based off the carrier USS Nimitz, which has been deployed in the Middle East and is returning home to Washington.
The carrier is on its final deployment before decommissioning after being a part of the US response to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial shipping.
Another aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S Truman, suffered a series of mishaps in recent months while deployed to the Middle East.
In December, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 jet from the Truman.
Then, in April, another F/A-18 jet fighte from the Truman’s hangar deck crashed into the Red Sea.
And in May, an F/A-18 jet fighter landing on the carrier in the Red Sea went overboard after apparently failing to catch the steel cables used to stop landing planes and forcing its two pilots to eject.
