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Another 🇺🇸 US F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier has been lost in the Red Sea, the second jet lost from the carrier in just over a week during attack by the Houthis, five people familiar with the matter told CNN.

It is not entirely clear what happened yet, as the investigation is ongoing, but two of the people said there was some kind of arrestment failure as the jet was trying to land on the carrier and the pilot and weapons systems officer had to eject. They were recovered by a rescue helicopter and are both alive, but they suffered minor injuries, one of the people said.

The jet crashed into the sea and has not been recovered, two of the people familiar with the incident said.

Separately, the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group “took a shot” at the Truman on Tuesday, four of the people said, despite President Donald Trump announcing an apparent ceasefire with the group hours earlier. It is not clear whether the two incidents are related.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense referred all questions about the incidents to the Navy and US Central Command. CNN has reached out to the Navy and CENTCOM for comment.

The loss of the fighter jet comes one week after another F/A-18 jet fell overboard the Truman. That time, initial reports indicated that the Truman made a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, which contributed to the fighter jet falling overboard.

An individual F/A-18 fighter jet costs more than $60 million, according to the Navy.

US Naval assets in the Red Sea have repeatedly come under Houthi fire since the Houthis began their attacks against Red Sea shipping in November 2023. In early 2024, a US destroyer in the Red Sea had to use its Phalanx Close-In Weapon System, its last line of defense to missile attacks, when a Houthi-fired cruise missile got as near as a mile away – and therefore seconds from impact.

The Truman aircraft carrier in particular, though, has been plagued with problems as part of its Red Sea deployment. In December, another F/A-18 fighter jet was operating from the Truman when it was “mistakenly fired” upon by the USS Gettysburg and crashed into the Red Sea. Both aviators ejected safely at the time.

Then, in February, the Truman was involved in a collision with a merchant ship near Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea. Following the incident, the commander of the Truman at the time, Captain Dave Snowden, was relieved of duty.

Captain Christopher Hill took command of the carrier shortly thereafter.

SmartPolician:
The man who killed the fun-seekers has a mental issue. You should give him 50 years imprisonment so he doesn't become a threat to human lives anymore.

zelnababa:
chai, shame on RUSSIA the so called word power that can not defeat small country like ukraine

ABC News || Vancouver Sun

🇮🇳 🆚 🇵🇰 Following the attack on tourists in Kashmir, the two neighbors are accusing each other and threatening retaliation. They have suspended two major bilateral treaties.

The prospect of a military confrontation between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed countries, can no longer be ruled out.

The two neighbors are escalating sanctions and threats following the terrorist attack on Tuesday, April 22, in Kashmir, against tourists, which killed 25 Indians and one Nepali. The attack was the deadliest against civilians in India since the Mumbai attacks in 2008, which claimed 175 lives.

New Delhi immediately blamed its regional rival for the carnage and decided on a series of retaliations, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960 under the auspices of the World Bank.

It is the first time India, which controls the rivers thanks to Kashmir, has taken such a measure. Islamabad retaliated on April 24, after a security council meeting involving government members and the military leadership, whose role is crucial in Pakistan.

In a statement, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who denies any involvement of his country in the Pahalgam attack, warned that "any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national powder."

Pakistani Punjab, the country's grain basket and cotton producer, is entirely dependent on the Indus and its tributaries.

Take two nuclear-armed rivals. Mix in a history of war and a disputed region that's been the site of a decadeslong rebellion. Now add a deadly militant attack against civilians that risks boiling those tensions over.

That's where things stand between India and Pakistan after an April 22 attack that killed mostly Indian nationals in Jammu and Kashmir sent tensions between the two countries skyrocketing. India has accused Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism, but the Pakistani government denies it was behind the attack that killed 26 civilians.

New Delhi and Islamabad have since carried out tit-for-tat punishments following the incident, including downgrading diplomatic and trade ties, closing the main border crossing, and revoking visas for each other's nationals.

The Pakistani government later said it would consider it "an act of war" if India followed through on a threat to block the flow of crucial rivers as punishment for the deadly incident.

On April 26, Pakistan called for a "neutral" investigation into the killings, saying it "remains committed to peace" ad that it was willing to cooperate with any probe.

Indian and Pakistani forces on April 25 exchanged gunfire for the second straight day along the Line of Control (LOC) separating the two countries in disputed Kashmir, which is split between them, claimed by both in its entirety, and was at the center of two of the three wars that New Delhi and Islamabad have fought against each other.

With tensions simmering, the episode has governments worried that India and Pakistan are once again on the brink of war.

NBC News || Anadolu Agency