BANGKOK: A US Navy F35C Lightning II combat spurt conducting exercises in the South China Sea crashed while trying to land on the sundeck of an American aircraft carrier, injuring seven mariners, the service said on Tuesday.
The airman was suitable to eject before the aircraft slammed into the flight sundeck of the USS Carl Vinson on Monday and also fell into the water. The airman was safely recovered by a copter, said Lt. Mark Langford, a spokesperson for the US 7th Fleet.
Seven mariners, including the airman, were injured and three were vacated for medical treatment in Manila, Philippines, while four were treated onboard the boat. The three transferred to Manila were reported in stable condition on Tuesday morning, the Navy said.
Details on the crash of the multimillion- bone aircraft were still being vindicated, Langford said.
The status and recovery of the aircraft are presently under disquisition.
Two American carrier strike groups with further than mariners and marines are conducting exercises in the South China Sea, which the service says is to demonstrate the US Indo-Pacific Command Joint Force’s capability to deliver an important maritime force.
Impact to the sundeck of the USS Carl Vinson was superficial, Langford said, and both carriers have proceeded with routine flight operations.
As China has pressed territorial claims in the South China Sea and increased pressure on Taiwan, theU.S. and its abettors have stepped up exercises in the region, in what they call freedom of navigation operations in line with transnational law.
As the Carl Vinson and Abraham Lincoln strike groups began their binary carrier operations on Sunday, China flew 39 warplanes towards Taiwan in its largest similar ramble of the new time, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry.
The confirmation of 24 Chinese J-16 and 10 J-10 fighter spurts stayed out of Taiwanese air space, but the initiative urged Taiwan to scramble its own aircraft in response.
Chinese aviators have been flying towards Taiwan on a near-diurnal base, and it was unclear if Sunday’s breakouts were a response to the American exercises. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to note.
Taiwan and China resolve during a civil war in 1949, but China claims the islet as its own home. Beijing has used political and military means to insulate and blackjack the tone-ruled islet, but the US has continued to support Taiwan by dealing it advanced munitions and fighter airplanes.
