Pilots of the US Navy damaged two aircraft
During its landing, an E-2C-2000NP Hawkeye of Carrier Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 116 "Sun Kings" ('NA-6xx') struck a parked F/A-18F Super Hornet of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 22 "Fighting Redcocks" ('NA-1xx') during operations in the North Arabian Sea at about 16:30 hrs (local time) on 24 August 2020.
Both Hawkeye and Hornet of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 "made partial contact" with each other on the flight deck of USS Nimitz (CVN-68). That partial contact consisted out of a wing of the E-2C that struck the tail fin of a CATM-9X air to air missile of the F/A-18F during a hook skip bolter. The incident proves again that carrier operations are inherently dangerous work to people and their machines. The five crew members of the Hawkeye remained unhurt during the bolter. No one was in or near the Super Hornet.
The incident was the second one involving a US Navy E-2C Hawkeye in recent weeks . On 31 August 2020, a Hawkeye crew bailed from their aircraft before it crashed in Virginia during a training flight *). These quartet crew member all landed safe on mother earth. The USS Nimitz has been operating in the 5th Fleet Area of Operations in the Middle East since July 2020. The strike group deployed on 8 June 2020 from homeport NB San Diego (CA).
The following squadrons have been added to the Carrier Air Wing:
- VFA-22 "Fighting Redcocks", F/A-18F, NA-1xx
- VFA-94 "Mighty Shrikes", F/A-18F, NA-2xx
- VFA-137 "Kestrels", F/A-18E, NA-3xx
- VMFA-323 "Death Rattlers", F/A-18C, NA_4xx
- VAQ-139 "Cougars", E/A-18G, NA-5xx
- VAW-116 "Sun Kings", E-2C-2000NP, NA-6xx
- HSC-6 "Indians", MH-60S, NA-6xx
- HSM-73 "Battle Cats", MH-60R, NA-7xx
- VRC- 30/Det.1 "Providers", C-2A NP, xx
*) News report 1 September 2020: Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye crash
Photo: US Navy