Navy Jet Crash: Pilot Ejected And Rescued By ‘Good Samaritan’

A Navy jet crashed into the Atlantic waters off Virginia’s cost Wednesday according to a Navy official. According to The Inquisitr, this crash comes only a week after a Navy helicopter crashed into the sea, killing three of the crew members on board.

Commander Mike Kafka, a spokesman for Navel Air Forces Atlantic, stated that the F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed into the Atlantic around 2:35 pm about 50 miles off Virginia Beach. The pilot of the Navy jet had ejected himself from the jet, and was later rescued from the ocean by a fisherman.

According to NBC News, the “good Samaritan” found and rescued the pilot from the water about 45 miles off the coast. A member of the fishing vessel, The Joyce D, described the event to Wavy News 10:

“We had some excitement a few hours ago — a Navy jet crashed,” read the fax from Bryan Daniels. “The other jets kept buzzing me until I got them on 16. They got me to go the crash site. There was one survivor. We tried to get him on board the boat, but he couldn’t grab nothing. All he could do is say he couldn’t breathe and help him. Then four helicopters showed up and they got him and carried him back to the hospital.”

From there, the pilot was picked up by a Navy Helicopter and was flown to a civilian hospital according to the Huffington Post. The pilot is being treated at Norfolk General Hospital. The Navy Jet was based at Naval at Navel Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach and belonged to Strike Fighter Squadron 143.

According to the Huffington Post, the squadron is part of Carrier Air Wing Seven, which “returned to Virginia this summer following a deployment aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to Europe and the Middle East.”

The Navy has said that they will investigate the cause of the investigation. Kafka has confirmed that the Navy jet has a black box, but doesn’t know if the Navy can or will be able to recover the aircraft. If they can, than the black box could help them in the investigation into what went wrong.

[Image by Official U.S. Navy Page via Flicker]