With the USS Carl Vinson finally on its way to North Korea after some initial "miscommunications" between the White House and the Pentagon, on Friday the aircraft carrier suffered another embarrassing moment when a F-18 pilot was forced to eject during an attempted landing on the deck of the Vinson in the Celebes Sea, south of the Philippines, the US Navy said in a statement. The pilot was recovered safely.
According to the US 7th Fleet Command, the incident occurred as the fighter jet was on final approach after "conducting routine flight operations" and is currently under investigation. The pilot is being assessed by the medical team on board USS Carl Vinson and there are no apparent injuries at this time. Full statement below:
USS Carl Vinson Pilot Ejects Safely at Sea
A pilot safely ejected and was quickly recovered by a helicopter assigned to HSC-4 aboard USS Carl Vinson while conducting routine flight operations during a transit in the Celebes Sea.
The incident occurred as the F/A-18E assigned to Carrier Air Wing 2 was on final approach to USS Carl Vinson. The incident is currently under investigation. The pilot is being assessed by the medical team on board USS Carl Vinson and there are no apparent injuries at this time.
The carrier group, currently located in proximity to the Philippines, is “steaming out toward the Sea of Japan” the White House said earlier this month. On April 15, however, the Navy posted a photograph on Flickr with a description placing the Carl Vinson in the Sunda Strait, several hundred miles south of Singapore. The Carl Vinson battle group was deployed in East Asia in January. According to the US Navy, the carrier is accompanied by the missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain, and destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Michael Murphy.
As showed yesterday, the current active deployment of the US naval fleet is as follows: