Navy Identifies EA-18G Growler as Type Involved in Mishap Aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Last Night
30th September 2026
The Navy has identified the aircraft type at the center of last night’s mishap aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. The service said the incident involved the crew of an EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jet who were forced to eject after the aircraft experienced an arresting gear failure while trying to land. This took place about 6:18 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Monday as the vessel was off the coast of Virginia.
The Growler crew, attached to the “Zappers” of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130, was “promptly recovered by search-and-rescue personnel assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 7. Both aviators were safely returned to the ship,” the Navy added. The cause of the mishap is still being investigated.
…
It is unclear at the moment whether the aircraft was lost or if there was any damage to the carrier itself. We have reached out to the Navy to find out more details.
If they had to eject, then yeah, the aircraft was lost. If the arresting wire actually broke, which is implied by the fact that sailors on deck were injured, then yeah, there was damage to the ship.
The failure of an arresting wire is one of the worst nightmares carrier-based fixed-wing naval aircrews and sailors on deck can face. The wire turns into a falling steel whip that can cut a person in half as it slices through the air across the flight deck, and usually, the aircraft it broke away from, ends up in the sea as it doesn’t have enough airspeed or time to get airborne again.
Well, there’s more to it than that. The one invariable rule for carrier landings is that when the aircraft hits the deck the pilot goes to full power just in case they miss the wire or the wire breaks and they have to get airborne again (“bolter”). A functioning arresting wire will stop the plane no matter what its engines are doing; it’s specifically engineered to do that. All this has been thought through and prepared for. It will be interesting to find out the details. (Yeah, I do miss my time on the JFK, even though it’s been fifty years.)