Four F/A-18 Super Hornets damaged in E-2D carrier landing incident

Aug. 21 (UPI) -- An E-2D aircraft struck two F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter planes and damaged two others while landing aboard an aircraft carrier, the Naval Safety Center said.

The incident occurred on Aug. 9 in the Arabian Sea aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The E-2D, a propeller-driven early warning surveillance plane known as the Hawkeye, committed a "bolter," the Navy said, which the term used to describe a landing aircraft missing its arresting cable and unable to decelerate.

The plane "impacted two other aircraft and caused debris impact damage to two additional aircraft," Navy Cmdr. Josh Frey, spokesman for the U.S. 5th Fleet, said. He added that no personnel were injured and referred to the damage incurred by the planes a "minor."

The Naval Safety Center classified the incident as a Class A mishap, a designation is given to only to accidents involving fatalities, damage totaling $2 million or more or complete loss of an aircraft.

Frey added that all the aircraft involved are undergoing maintenance.

In 2016, a Navy E-2C, a similar plane, nearly fell into the sea after an arresting cable snapped aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and could not slow the aircraft. Eight sailors were injured.