Two U.S. Navy fighter jets collided and crashed in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, leaving one pilot injured and one pilot missing, Navy officials said.
The two F/A-18 Hornets took off from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson when the planes collided and crashed in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region at around 6 p.m. local time, the Navy said.
One pilot was found and returned to the carrier for medical treatment. The nature of the pilot's wounds was not immediately clear.
A guided-missile cruiser and destroyer as well as helicopters were dispatched to the scene to search for the other pilot.
The wrecked aircrafts have not been recovered and the cause of the crash is under investigation, the Navy said.
Both planes, made by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, were first delivered to the navy in 1989, according to the Associated Press.
The Carl Vinson was in the western Pacific Ocean, part of the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, on its way to the Persian Gulf to relieve the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, NBC News reported. The George H.W. Bush is the same carrier used to stage planes for air strikes against Islamist militants in northern Iraq.
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