US Navy searching for two crew members after aircraft crash near Mount Rainier
By Haley Britzky, CNN
(CNN) — The US Navy is searching for two crew members after their aircraft crashed near Mount Rainier in Washington during a training flight on Tuesday.
A US Navy EA-18G Growler aircraft — assigned to the Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130 in Washington — crashed on Tuesday afternoon east of Mount Rainier, according to a release from Naval Air Forces. The aircraft wreckage also has not been located.
“Aerial operations continued through the night, launching from (Naval Air Station) Whidbey Island and searching in the area 30 miles west of Yakima, Wash. Responders are facing mountainous terrain, cloudy weather, and low visibility as the search is ongoing,” Naval Air Forces said Wednesday. “As of 11 a.m. on Oct. 16, neither the crew nor wreckage has been located.”
The Navy is working “in coordination with Yakima County tribal and local authorities,” Naval Air Forces said Wednesday. Military units involved in the search include US Navy Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1), Patrol Squadron (VP-46), NAS Whidbey Island Search and Rescue, and US Army 4-6 Air Cavalry Squadron out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
The EA-18G Growler is an electronic warfare aircraft, and variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet. The crash is under investigation, the Navy said. The unit the Growler belongs to recently completed a deployment aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to the Middle East. A release in July said the unit “scored the first-ever air-to-air kill by a VAQ squadron in Navy history” during the deployment.
“Words can’t do justice to how proud I am of this ‘Zapper’ Team which performed their duty in combat amidst incredibly challenging circumstances for months on end, frequently not knowing what each day would bring,” Cmdr. Carl Ellsworth, the squadron’s commanding officer, said in July. “The best of our country is right here at VAQ-130.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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