The US Navy is searching for two missing crew members after its EA-18G Growler aircraft crashed near Mount Rainier on Tuesday evening. According to initial reports from the Navy, the Growler aircraft was flying near the mountain during a routine training flight when it crashed at 3:23 PM.
“Multiple search and rescue assets have been launched, including a US Navy MH-60S helicopter from NAS Whidbey Island to locate the crew and examine the crash site. The Navy stated in a release: “As of 7 PM on October 15, the status of the crew members remains unknown.”
The crashed Growler aircraft was part of Electronic Attack Squadron 130 based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington. The squadron, known as the “Zappers,” recently returned from the Red Sea where they conducted 700 combat missions against the Houthis. The Growler aircraft survived hundreds of drone attacks but crashed during a training mission at home.
The cause of the crash is still unknown and the Growlers have not gained a reputation for crashes and technical issues like the V-22 Osprey and the Joint Strike Fighter F-35. The Growler aircraft crash is the latest in a long series of unfortunate aviation accidents suffered by the US military recently. Many of the crash incidents involve new and technologically advanced aircraft like the V-22 and F-35.
The V-22 is a tiltrotor aircraft that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter, then tilt its rotors for horizontal flight like an airplane. Its unique design has led to issues. Last year, the Pentagon grounded its entire fleet of V-22 aircraft after a major crash in November killed eight pilots. In August of that year, another V-22 aircraft crashed in Australia, killing three Marines.
In 2022, a V-22 aircraft crash resulted in the deaths of five Marines in Glames, California. In March, four Marines lost their lives during NATO exercises in Norway when their V-22 aircraft crashed. In 2015, two Marines died in another V-22 aircraft incident.
The American F-35 aircraft, valued at trillions of dollars, is also susceptible to crashes. In September 2023, an advanced fighter jet disappeared in the skies of South Carolina. The Pentagon appealed to the public for help in locating it. The pilot safely ejected but the aircraft was in autopilot mode and the Defense Department later found remnants of it two hours north of Charleston.
An F-35 aircraft crashed itself in the skies of Arizona in 2021. In 2022, people captured images of an F-35 aircraft crashing on a runway in Fort Worth, Texas. In the same year, a software glitch caused a malfunction in Utah. A more dramatic video of an aircraft carrier crash in 2022 was leaked online showing its crash during landing. In May 2020, an F-35 aircraft landed so forcefully on the runway that it rolled and caught fire, completely destroyed.
The list of F-35 and V-22 aircraft accidents is long, and this is just a small sample. In contrast, The Growler has an extremely clean record. In 2018, an Australian Growler aircraft caught fire on the runway before a training exercise, but this is the only notable disaster involving the aircraft so far.
