Pilot Ejects Safely, Aircraft To Be Left At Sea

The pilot of an F/A-18 Hornet was safely rescued after he bailed out while attempting a night landing on the USS Ronald Reagan near Queensland, Australia Saturday.

Ship spokesman Lieutenant Commander Gary Ross told the Queensland Courier-Mail the plane was lost at 10:17 pm Saturday night, during a failed landing attempt onboard the Ronald Reagan.

"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 accident happened approximately 250 miles southeast of Brisbane.

It is not yet known what problem the pilot encountered that led to the ejection, and the loss of the $37 million fighter. Ross believes it wasn't due to a problem with the aircraft, however.

"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."

As a precaution, the other five Hornets participating in the night landing exercise flew to Brisbane after the incident.

"We just did the safest option, to send them to Brisbane International Airport." Ross said.

Military officials stated it is not known if the aircraft was carrying live ordnance at the time it went down. One official stated it was unlikely an attempt would be made to recover the aircraft -- although the military usually tries to recover crashed planes to safeguard the electronics onboard.

As was reported earlier this month by Aero-News, the Ronald Reagan is currently on its maiden overseas deployment.

FMI: www.navy.mil