US Navy plane carrying 11 crashes in the Philippine Sea en route to aircraft carrier

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November 22, 2017 4:32 PM

"Personnel recovery is underway and their condition will be evaluated by USS Ronald Reagan medical staff," the Navy said in a statement.

A US Navy plane carrying 11 people on Wednesday crashed near Okinawa en route to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.
This is the latest in a string of deadly crashes for the US Navy's Pacific fleet.
The plane was a C-2 Greyhound.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that the US Navy was conducting a search for three missing sailors after a plane carrying 11 passengers crashed into the sea southeast of Okinawa.

Eight of the passengers have been recovered alive.

The plane crashed while it was en route to the USS Ronald Reagan, the US's forward-deployed aircraft carrier, on Wednesday.

The accident is the latest crash involving the US Navy's Pacific or 7th Fleet. The other crashes have involved the guided missile destroyers the USS Fitzgerald, USS John McCain, and a non-fatal crash involving the USS Benfold.

In total, 17 people have died in crashes in the US Navy's 7th Fleet ships in the second half of 2017. Those deaths were ruled preventable by a Navy review.

"Personnel recovery is underway and their condition will be evaluated by USS Ronald Reagan medical staff," the Navy said in a statement.

The aircraft, a C-2 Greyhound logistics plane that moves people, mail, and cargo onto the aircraft carriers, suffered engine troubles, a Japanese defense ministry spokesperson told Reuters.

The Greyhound has served with the navy for more than five decades. It is to be phased out in favor of tilt-rotor V-22 Ospreys in the near future.

Eight of the passengers have been found, but no information about their condition has been given, according to the Navy.

The Navy has withheld the names of those involved in the crash pending next-of-kin notifications.

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