Two U.S. Navy warplanes collided off the North Carolina coast on Thursday and crashed in the Atlantic, where the four crew were rescued by a commercial fishing boat and flown by helicopter to a Virginia hospital, Reuters reports. Two Navy jet fighters collided off the coast of North Carolina during a routine training m. “For people to walk away from that is a pretty wonderful thing”.
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The helicopter was dispatched from the Coast Guard’s air station in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
“It was a textbook rescue”, Lt. Commander Krystyn Pecora said.
One was taken into the hospital on a stretcher; there is no word on his condition.
A Coast Guard spokesperson said the airmen were in “very high spirits”.
Rob Schutrumpf, one of fishermen on the Pammy, told WAVY-TV that a burning piece of a plane – either a wing or a tail – helped them locate the men. The second helicopter landed around 1:15, and the two other rescued crew members were able to leave the aircraft and walk into the hospital unassisted.
“We’re happy to have brought everyone home safely today”, Lt. Cmdr.
The F/A-18F Super Hornets were assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 211. Tiffani Walker said that the two jets, both F/A-18 Super Hornets, were involved in an “in-flight mishap”.
Each of the planes costs at least $57 million, the Navy said.
He said the investigation board will determine if they need the jets in order to complete the investigation. Four Naval aviators based at NAS Oceana survived a crash during training Thursday morning.
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Richer reported from Richmond, Virginia.
