San Diego skyline, in foreground, and Bay, in the background
A Boeing EA-18 jet with two people on board crashed into San Diego Bay Wednesday morning, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Two pilots were rescued after the military fighter jet, known as an EA-18G Growler, went down near Shelter Island at 10:15 a.m. local time, officials said, as dramatic video shared on social media showed the plane appearing to nosedive at a high rate of speed into the water.
Both pilots had ejected safely before the crash, a spokesman for the San Diego Coast Guard said in a statement.
The Boeing aircraft was assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 135, which is based at the naval air station at Whidbey Island, Washington.
The aircraft was in San Diego as part of the Bamboo Eagle integrated training exercise and was operating out of North Island, according to the Navy official.
The captain of an H&M Landing charter fishing boat saw the pilots eject and, subsequently, the plane crash into the bay and turned the vessel around to rescue the two service members. The two were then picked up by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vessel, according to the Coast Guard and transferred to University of California San Diego Hillcrest Medical Center, where they were reported to be in “good condition.”
The Boeing EA-18G Growler, which replaced the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler in the U.S. naval fleet, is an American carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft, a specialized version of the two-seat Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
