Navy jet crashes near San Diego; Whidbey Island-based aviators rescued

A U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler crashed Wednesday morning off the coast of San Diego, the second crash in four months involving aircraft and crew assigned to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

The two crew members ejected from the fighter jet into San Diego Bay off Point Loma soon after takeoff around 10:15 a.m., according to the U.S. Navy. The two were found about 10 minutes later by the Coast Guard and taken to a hospital, where they were in stable condition.

The aircraft and crew, whose identities haven’t been released, are assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 135, known as the “Black Ravens,” at NAS Whidbey Island. It was not immediately known Wednesday why they were in California.

The Growler wreckage was still in the bay Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department said in a news briefing.

In October, two aviators were killed in Washington during a routine training flight when their EA-18G Growler crashed east of Mount Rainier. Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay Evans, a naval flight officer, and Lt. Serena Wileman, a naval aviator, were assigned to VAQ 130, known as the “Zappers.”

All but one of the Navy’s Growler squadrons, which fly the Boeing-built aircraft, are based at NAS Whidbey Island. The dozen operational electronic attack squadrons typically have four assigned aircraft, along with an average of 30 officers and 170 assigned personnel, according to the Navy.

Each aircraft, a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, has a unit cost of $67 million.

The San Diego crash is also the second involving military aircraft in 2025. In January, an Army helicopter collided with a regional American Airlines jet over Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. Three service members were conducting a training flight on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.