US Navy searching for two crew members after aircraft crash near Mount Rainier

The US Navy is searching for two crew members after their aircraft crashed near Mount Rainier in Washington during a training flight on Tuesday.

A US Navy EA-18G Growler aircraft — assigned to the Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130 in Washington — crashed on Tuesday afternoon east of Mount Rainier, according to a release from Naval Air Forces.

“Multiple search and rescue assets, including a U.S. Navy MH-60S helicopter, launched from NAS Whidbey Island to locate the crew and examine the crash site,” the release said. “As of 7 p.m. on Oct. 15, the status of the two crew members remains unknown.”

Search and rescue operations were still ongoing on Wednesday morning.

The EA-18G Growler is an electronic warfare aircraft, and variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet. The crash is under investigation, the Navy said. The unit the Growler belongs to recently completed a deployment aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to the Middle East. A release in July said the unit “scored the first-ever air-to-air kill by a VAQ squadron in Navy history” during the deployment.

“Words can’t do justice to how proud I am of this ‘Zapper’ Team which performed their duty in combat amidst incredibly challenging circumstances for months on end, frequently not knowing what each day would bring,” Cmdr. Carl Ellsworth, the squadron’s commanding officer, said in July. “The best of our country is right here at VAQ-130.”