Ditched jet to stay on seabed
Cameron Atfield and Rosanne Barrett
30jan06
A $40 million fighter jet which ditched into the sea 220km southeast of Brisbane after failing to land on aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is unlikely to be salvaged.
The pilot was forced to eject from the US Navy jet off the Australian coast late on Saturday after a night landing "mishap".
The single-seat F/A-18C twin-engine strike fighter was the first plane lost from the 97,000-tonne carrier, which spent last week moored at Brisbane's Fisherman Islands.
It was not clear last night if the jet had been carrying weapons.
It was the second incident involving a US Navy F/A-18 jet in the past 10 days. A pilot was killed when a jet crashed in California during a training mission on January 18.
The US Navy is investigating both incidents.
The pilot of the plane ditched on Saturday night, whose name was not released, spent 15 minutes in the ocean before being rescued but was not injured.
Ship spokesman Lt-Cdr Gary Ross said the plane was lost at 10.17pm on Saturday during a failed "arrested landing" on the deck of the giant aircraft carrier.
"It was attempting to land on the flight deck during night flights," he said. "The pilot ejected and was rescued using one of our helicopters."
The Ronald Reagan was not damaged and remained "mission capable".
"We're continuing operations in the west Pacific," he said. "We train for this – we train for regular operations as well as for emergencies, so our pilots are ready to act."
The ship, on its maiden overseas deployment, left Brisbane on Friday morning and had been due to conduct naval operations in support of the war on terror as well as security commitments in the western Pacific.
Lt-Cdr Ross said it was not yet known whether the F/A-18 – worth $40 million – would be recovered.
However, another US military official said it was unlikely even though the military usually tried to recover aircraft to safeguard top-secret electronic equipment.
Lt-Cdr Ross refused to reveal the exact location of the ship when the incident happened for security reasons but it was believed to be in deep water past the edge of the continental shelf.
Lt-Cdr Ross said the plane had been correctly maintained as required under military regulations.
"The aircraft is maintained constantly during operations," he said. "We constantly monitor how long the aircraft operates and flies – and according to our maintenance regulations, that is when we perform maintenance on the aircraft."
Another five F/A-18s, which were also involved in the night exercises, flew to Brisbane after the incident.
"We just did the safest option, to send them to Brisbane International Airport." Lt-Cdr Ross said.
Brisbane Airport spokesman Jim Carden said the five other planes had landed at the Brisbane international airport about 12.30am yesterday.
The five pilots stayed overnight in Brisbane and returned to the carrier about noon.
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