Details remain very limited, but an EA-18G Growler electronic attack jet crashed on Wednesday morning off Point Loma, which marks the entrance to San Diego Bay. The sprawling Naval Air Station North Island sits across from Point Loma, with MCAS Miramar located inland roughly 15 miles to the north. A major exercise, the latest iteration of Bamboo Eagle, which you can read all about here, is ongoing off the Southern California coast. It’s not clear if the crash is connected to this large-scale training event.
San Diego Web Cam on X, which has cameras up around the bay, was first to report of the crash. Local ABC affiliate Channel 10 News reports two crew were rescued shortly after the crash. Their crews saw the aircraft crash into the bay.
We have reached out to the Navy on multiple fronts and will report back when we have more information.
UPDATE:
From the Navy:
-From a Navy official: An EA-18 G crashed and the crew has been safely recovered by the Coast Guard
-Cause will come out in an investigation.
-The aircraft is still in the water off the coast of San Diego
It’s also worth noting that the crew has been sent to a hospital.
San Diego Web Cam posted the section of video along with radio calls pertaining to the crash and the response to it. As you can see, there was fog in the area at the time. According to radio communications, the Growler was taking off when the mishap occurred. Listen and watch below:
UPDATE:
New CCTV footage shows the Growler coming down at a very steep angle. We cannot verify this video at this time.
UPDATE:
We now have images of the crew after being recovered from the water and the Growler, without said crew, prior to crashing. We see it without its canopy and its gear down relatively low over the water. It’s unclear if it pitched up and came down near vertically as seen in the video above, or if the video is fake. Major pitch deviations do happen in some instances after ejection.
We also now know the Growler belonged to VAQ-135, the Black Ravens, based out of NAS Whidbey Island.
UPDATE:
We now have dramatic close-up CCTV footage showing the impact, which matches with the configuration of the aircraft seen in the image above and the CCTV video on the steep descent.
UPDATE:
Official statement from the Navy below. Looks like this was a landing that went wrong:
NAVAL AIR STATION NORTH ISLAND, San Diego – At approximately 10:15 PDT, a U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 135 crashed while landing.
Two aircrew ejected into San Diego Bay and were quickly recovered before being transported to a local hospital for medical assessment. Both personnel are in stable condition.
Naval Base Coronado has stood up an Emergency Operations Center in response to the mishap, and assessment of the crash site is ongoing.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
More information will be released as it becomes available.
The EA-18G Growler is a variant in the F/A-18 family of aircraft that combines the proven F/A-18F Super Hornet platform with a sophisticated electronic warfare suite. VAQ-135 is based at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington.
Contact the author: Tyler@twz.com