Navy jet crashes near Mount Rainier; 2 crew members missing

Two aviators were missing Tuesday after a U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler crashed east of Mount Rainier on a routine training flight, according to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

A search team, including a U.S. Navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from Whidbey Island to “locate the crew and examine the crash site,” the Navy said in a news release. Identities of the crew members had not been released.

The effort continued as of 11:30 p.m. A Navy helicopter’s search area appeared to span more than 40 miles from north to south, according to data from Flightradar24, which tracks flights.

The cause of the crash was under investigation.

The aircraft is from Electronic Attack Squadron 130, known as the “Zappers.” The squadron returned in July from a combat deployment on the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Southern Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden, according to the Navy.

The EA-18G Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet. All but one of the Navy’s Growler squadrons are based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station near Oak Harbor.

The first Growler test aircraft went into production in 2004 and made its first flight in 2006, according to the Navy. Built by Boeing, the aircraft’s unit cost is $67 million.

In 2017, two Navy aircrew from a different squadron were injured when the canopy on an EA-18G Growler jet separated from the aircraft as they prepared to take off at Naval Station Whidbey Island on a training mission.

In that incident, the pilot and an electronic-warfare officer were both severely injured and hospitalized for weeks. It prompted a three-day “operational pause” of Growler flight operations.