An F/A-18E Super Hornet sits on the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman prepared to launch into the skies over the Red Sea. Image Credit: CNN
On April 28, 2025, the USS Harry S. Truman experienced a mishap that would make any Navy veteran wince. An F/A-18E Super Hornet, under tow in the hangar bay, was lost overboard into the Red Sea. The incident occurred as the carrier executed a sharp maneuver to evade incoming fire from Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both the pilot and the sailor operating the towing tractor managed to jump clear before the aircraft and tug plunged into the briny deep. One sailor sustained a minor injury.
How Can a Jet Just Fall Overboard?
I’ve never been in the Navy, but I can imagine they have procedures in place that prevent multimillion-dollar pieces of equipment from falling off carrier decks. After all, they have been doing this for over a century.
A $60 million fighter jet taking a nosedive into the Red Sea isn’t something you see every day—unless, of course,you’re stationed aboard the USS Harry S. Truman in 2025. This little maritime misadventure unfolded as one of the Navy’s prized F/A-18E Super Hornets was being towed inside the hangar bay, a standard part of daily carrier life. These jets aren’t just parked like Hondas at Walmart—they’re shuffled into place for launches, landings, or maintenance by small tractors, guided by crew members who know every inch of the steel flight deck better than most people know their own driveway.
But on this particular day, things went sideways—literally. As the carrier was underway in the Red Sea, it executed a sudden hard turn. The reason? Evading incoming fire from those ever-persistent Houthi rebels over in Yemen. Now, when you’re hauling a 30-ton hunk of flying death around a hangar bay and the ship decides to juke like a linebacker dodging a tackle, you’ve got problems. Since the jet was mid-move, it wasn’t strapped down with its usual set of heavy-duty chains. The brakes? Disengaged—because that’s how towing works. One second, everything’s business as usual, and the next, that Super Hornet and its little tractor buddy are making an unscheduled exit off the edge.
Miraculously, everyone involved made it out alive. The jet’s pilot and the sailor operating the tug had the presence of mind—and likely the adrenaline of a dozen Red Bulls—to jump clear before the pair of multimillion-dollar machines went for a swim. One sailor did end up with a minor injury, but considering the scale of what happened, it could’ve been a lot worse.Now the Navy is in the midst of investigating the incident, combing through every detail to figure out how and why a jet just slipped off the edge like a drunk from a barstool.
The truth is, these kinds of operations are obviously inherently dangerous. You’re talking about maneuvering complex, insanely expensive hardware on the deck of a ship that’s constantly pitching, rolling, and now apparently dodging missiles. It’s a balancing act that even circus performers would pass on. While this isn’texactly a common occurrence, it’s a sharp reminder that the laws of physics don’t care how much your aircraft costs—or how routine the task might be. When warships become dodgeball players and jets aren’t strapped down, even the most experienced crew can find themselves in a world of hurt.
The Cost of a Splash
The Super Hornet, a mainstay of naval aviation, comes with a hefty price tag. Estimates place the value of the lost aircraft between $60 million and $67.4 million. This isn’t the first time the Truman has faced such losses; it’s the second Super Hornet lost during its current deployment in the Red Sea.
On April 28, 2025, the USS Harry S. Truman experienced a mishap that would make any Navy veteran wince. An F/A-18E Super Hornet, under tow in the hangar bay, was lost overboard into the Red Sea. The incident occurred as the carrier executed a sharp maneuver to evade incoming fire from Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both the pilot and the sailor operating the towing tractor managed to jump clear before the aircraft and tug plunged into the briny deep. One sailor sustained a minor injury.
How Can a Jet Just Fall Overboard?
I’ve never been in the Navy, but I can imagine they have procedures in place that prevent multimillion-dollar pieces of equipment from falling off carrier decks. After all, they have been doing this for over a century.
A $60 million fighter jet taking a nosedive into the Red Sea isn’t something you see every day—unless, of course,you’re stationed aboard the USS Harry S. Truman in 2025. This little maritime misadventure unfolded as one of the Navy’s prized F/A-18E Super Hornets was being towed inside the hangar bay, a standard part of daily carrier life. These jets aren’t just parked like Hondas at Walmart—they’re shuffled into place for launches, landings, or maintenance by small tractors, guided by crew members who know every inch of the steel flight deck better than most people know their own driveway.
But on this particular day, things went sideways—literally. As the carrier was underway in the Red Sea, it executed a sudden hard turn. The reason? Evading incoming fire from those ever-persistent Houthi rebels over in Yemen. Now, when you’re hauling a 30-ton hunk of flying death around a hangar bay and the ship decides to juke like a linebacker dodging a tackle, you’ve got problems. Since the jet was mid-move, it wasn’t strapped down with its usual set of heavy-duty chains. The brakes? Disengaged—because that’s how towing works. One second, everything’s business as usual, and the next, that Super Hornet and its little tractor buddy are making an unscheduled exit off the edge.
Miraculously, everyone involved made it out alive. The jet’s pilot and the sailor operating the tug had the presence of mind—and likely the adrenaline of a dozen Red Bulls—to jump clear before the pair of multimillion-dollar machines went for a swim. One sailor did end up with a minor injury, but considering the scale of what happened, it could’ve been a lot worse.Now the Navy is in the midst of investigating the incident, combing through every detail to figure out how and why a jet just slipped off the edge like a drunk from a barstool.
The truth is, these kinds of operations are obviously inherently dangerous. You’re talking about maneuvering complex, insanely expensive hardware on the deck of a ship that’s constantly pitching, rolling, and now apparently dodging missiles. It’s a balancing act that even circus performers would pass on. While this isn’texactly a common occurrence, it’s a sharp reminder that the laws of physics don’t care how much your aircraft costs—or how routine the task might be. When warships become dodgeball players and jets aren’t strapped down, even the most experienced crew can find themselves in a world of hurt.
The Cost of a Splash
The Super Hornet, a mainstay of naval aviation, comes with a hefty price tag. Estimates place the value of the lost aircraft between $60 million and $67.4 million. This isn’t the first time the Truman has faced such losses; it’s the second Super Hornet lost during its current deployment in the Red Sea.
You’d think losing one $60 million fighter jet would be enough excitement for a single deployment—but the USS Harry S. Truman seems to be going for a high score in the “bad luck over the Red Sea” game. Before that F/A-18E Super Hornet took its involuntary dive off the carrier’s deck in April 2025, there was another incident just a few months earlier that should have raised more than a few eyebrows at the Pentagon.
Back in December 2024, another Super Hornet went down—but this time, it wasn’t gravity or evasive ship maneuvers to blame. No, this jet was brought down in a classic case of “oops, wrong target” courtesy of the USS Gettysburg, a guided-missile cruiser sailing as part of the Truman’s strike group. During a tense moment responding to incoming drones and anti-ship cruise missiles aimed at U.S. forces, someone on the Gettysburg made the catastrophic mistake of tagging a friendly aircraft as hostile. The result? A multi-million-dollar Super Hornet lit up by its own side, sending two Navy aviators ejecting into the Red Sea like something out of a Tom Clancy novel gone horribly wrong.
Thankfully, the aviators were rescued, and the Navy—likely red-faced and scrambling for answers—launched an investigation into how one of their own ships managed to shoot down their own jet. Combine that with April’s “slip-and-slide off the flight deck” episode, and the Truman is now sitting on a record of two Super Hornet losses in just a few months, both in the same patch of troubled water. If this deployment had a theme song, it’d be Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”—except with fewer guitars and a lot more taxpayer-funded hardware sinking into the sea.
Repair or Replace?
While the aircraft is currently resting on the seabed, the Navy has a history of recovering and repairing such valuable assets. In 2022, an F-35C that crashed into the South China Sea was salvaged from a depth of over 12,000 feet. Despite the Super Hornet’s value and the Navy’s capabilities, a recovery operation is unlikely to be on the horizon.
The Navy’s standard procedure in such cases is to investigate the incident, write off the lost aircraft, and eventually replace it with another airframe from existing inventory or new procurement, as needed.
Operational Strain and Safety Concerns
The Truman’s deployment has been extended amid escalating operations against Houthi forces. Since mid-March 2025, the U.S. has conducted over 800 airstrikes targeting Houthi positions. Such intense operational tempos can strain both personnel and equipment, potentially contributing to mishaps.
Looking Forward
The loss of the Super Hornet underscores the challenges faced by naval operations in contested environments. As the Navy assesses the incident, questions about operational safety, equipment maintenance, and strategic priorities come to the fore. Recovering the aircraft may be technically feasible, but preventing such incidents in the future is paramount.
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