An F/-18E Super Hornet assigned to the carrier air wing embarked aboard aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) was lost at sea during a towing incident in the hangar bay Monday, according to a Navy announcement.

The single-seat Super Hornet assigned to the “Knight Hawks” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 136, “was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” reads the statement.
“Sailors towing the aircraft took immediate action to move clear of the aircraft before it fell overboard. An investigation is underway.”

No personnel were lost and one sailor sustained minor injuries, according to the service.

Truman was conducting an “evasive maneuver” during the incident, a U.S. defense official confirmed to USNI News on Monday. A second defense official told USNI News the Super Hornet was being loaded onto the aircraft elevator on Truman when the strike fighter slid over the edge.

U.S. ships in the Red Sea are daily targets of Houthi one-way attack drones and cruise and ballistic missiles since U.S. strikes against targets in Yemen resumed on March 15

 

Could be excusable given that an "evasive maneuver" in that AOR might have been due to actual combat... ship safety ($13B) has higher priority than hardware safety on the flight/hangar deck.

 

Also, one Sailor was injured.
Worth more than the plane.

 

Not sure how this happened, we always had a brake rider in the cockpit, a chalk walker near each main, a tug driver and director and if I remember right permission was required from the bridge before moving aircraft? Maybe things have changed, glad nobody was killed or seriously hurt.

 

If it actually was an unplanned severe evasive maneuver for the safety of the ship it was certainly excusable. If it was planned (ie. An exercise) but not coordinated with those who might be moving ordnance, aircraft or otherwise involved in procedures that might be affected by an extreme turn, not so much.

 

In normal ops the ship's course, speed, maneuvers are thoroughly coordinated with the air wing... that's what the ship exists for, and that's why the ship CO is ALWAYS a naval aviator.

Rumor is that the maneuver was induced by enemy action.

 

Hopefully minor, and agree if ditching the plane saved other or more serious injuries it was worth it.

 

In extremis, CVN's can maneuver very severely and heel over pretty hard and pretty far. They have vastly more propulsive capability than any other ships in that size range.

 

Elsewhere, there were similar stories of planes sliding overboard during maneuvers of the ship. This isn’t new and has there been an authoritative report as to why the turn? A friend was on a carrier in the Atlantic off Norway during a storm. An A-7 chained down was swept was away be wave over the bow.

 

Not new, nature of the carrier aviation beast.

Also Truman has been on deployment for quite a while... ships get a fresh coat of non-skid prior to leaving but it definitely wears off with use, so there's a good chance the brakes were locked but the tires were sliding on bare steel coated with a nice sheen of various mx fluids, all of which are slippery.

My guess is that the injury was the brake rider frantically bailing out before the jet went over the edge.