WASHINGTON — The fate of two U.S. Navy pilots remained a mystery Wednesday, a day after their fighter jet crashed during a routine training flight and search-and-rescue crews reported finding no sign of them in the rugged landscape of northeast Washington.
Wreckage of the EA-18G Growler jet was located Wednesday afternoon but the search continues for the two-person crew, military officials said in an update on Wednesday. The crash site is a mountainside east of Mount Rainier, officials said.
"Responders are facing mountainous terrain, cloudy weather, and low visibility as the search is ongoing," Navy officials said in an earlier statement Wednesday afternoon.
The jet, from Electronic Attack Squadron 130, crashed at about 3:23 p.m. on Tuesday about 30 miles west of Yakima on the eastern side of Mount Rainier, according to the Navy.
The jet crashed after launching a training flight from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, officials said.
An MH-60S helicopter crew was immediately launched to search for the missing airmen and wreckage, officials said. Additional rescue units from the U.S. Navy Fleet Reconnaissance Squadron One, Patrol Squadron, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Search and Rescue and the U.S. Army 4-6 Air Calvary Squadron from Joint Base Luis-McChord in Washington were also involved in the search, officials said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, according to the statement.
The Growler aircraft, which according to the Navy is worth about $67 million, is "the most advanced technology in airborne Electronic Attack and stands as the Navy's first line of defense in hostile environments."
The 130 squadron adopted the nickname "Zappers" when it was commissioned as the Carrier Early Warning Squadron 13 in 1959, the military said.
The squadron was most recently deployed to the Southern Red Sea, where it carried out seven pre-planned strikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, according to a statement.
The Zappers also carried out some 700 combat missions " to degrade the Houthi capability to threaten innocent shipping," according to a press release announcing the squadron's return to Washington in July.