Just caught a the end of this on the news.

Anyone heard what happened ?

Nothing on news.com.au yet =)

Damn it. I just caught the same bit on the news and thought this thread might know what happened.

nothing on Sky news or CNN or Fox news either. Must have just happened

will record anything on ten news

clicky

you rock

maybe the pilot enjoyed a little too much of the hospitality while in Brisbane...

he wasn't even from the reagen, he was from a separate US base
read your own article !

If you think about it for a few seconds, that Lemoore place is in California. Do you think a Hornet would have the range to fly that far (maybe it mid-air refueled along the way) seeing as the Reagan would still be relatively close after only 2 days out of Brisbane.

yes

well either way it sounds like a job for Jag or NCIS ;-P

carrier = top speed of over 30 knots. 2 days sailing = 2481km out

hornet range info

Even in a minimal weapon loadout its range is only 565km

+2700km = 3200km. Still about 6000km short of California

video or lying :)

Even in a minimal weapon loadout its range is only 565km

Erm...

565 km) in fighter escort role

Wouldn't that be a RADIUS? i.e. 565k's out + fuel to dick around + fuel to fly back and land + a bit of fuel to spare?

That would sound far more plausible to me.

So if one took long range tanks + flew in a straight line and refuelled mid-air, it would get a hell of alot further.
But I still highly doubt they would fly one from CA. to here.

I think that is just where the squadron is based when it's not active and that was the only reason they mentioned it. On the news they just said they were out night maneuvers attempting to land and that the carrier wasn't all that far from Brisbane yet.

why the crap would you fly so far tho

It happened just after 10 pm last night too, he overshot the runway and missed the cable used to stop them. The crew of the USS Ronald Reagan are keeping rather tight lipped about this until the inquiry is complete.

I saw it on 2 news channels while flicking between the 2 in the break in the cricket and they both said the plane was from the Reagan.

The G Forces when ejecting would have been fun I imagine.
Isn't ejecting something like 16-18g's?
Bones begin to typically snap around 21+ g's.

FUN FUN FUN

Strap yourself in and feel the G's!

The aircraft carrier is okay,

Well that's okay then!!!!!!

It's all a big conspiracy so the USAF can replace their fleet of 250+ warplanes with 9 F-22 Raptors. Cos y'know, if they keep crashing them all, they'll have none left and have to replace them with raptors.

except its a navy plane...

He tried to land the plane near Brisbane, Australia, on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, but something happened and he Profited

There fixed that article.

It's all a big conspiracy so the USAF can replace their fleet of 250+ warplanes with 9 F-22 Raptors. Cos y'know, if they keep crashing them all, they'll have none left and have to replace them with raptors.

Ohhh yeah, if I had a choice of plane to fly it would be an F-16 or an F-22.

F-16 just cause it just looks cool.
F-22 cause it looks cool and they're awesome :)

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/romain.g/f22-2.jpg
raptors sure are sexy!

A $40 million fighter jet which ditched into the sea 220km southeast of Brisbane after failing to land on aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is unlikely to be salvaged.
The pilot was forced to eject from the US Navy jet off the Australian coast late on Saturday after a night landing "mishap".

The single-seat F/A-18C twin-engine strike fighter was the first plane lost from the 97,000-tonne carrier, which spent last week moored at Brisbane's Fisherman Islands.

Video »

It was not clear last night if the jet had been carrying weapons.

It was the second incident involving a US Navy F/A-18 jet in the past 10 days. A pilot was killed when a jet crashed in California during a training mission on January 18.

Advertisement:
The US Navy is investigating both incidents.

The pilot of the plane ditched on Saturday night, whose name was not released, spent 15 minutes in the ocean before being rescued but was not injured.

Ship spokesman Lt-Cdr Gary Ross said the plane was lost at 10.17pm on Saturday during a failed "arrested landing" on the deck of the giant aircraft carrier.

"It was attempting to land on the flight deck during night flights," he said. "The pilot ejected and was rescued using one of our helicopters."

The Ronald Reagan was not damaged and remained "mission capable".

"We're continuing operations in the west Pacific," he said. "We train for this ? we train for regular operations as well as for emergencies, so our pilots are ready to act."

The ship, on its maiden overseas deployment, left Brisbane on Friday morning and had been due to conduct naval operations in support of the war on terror as well as security commitments in the western Pacific.

Lt-Cdr Ross said it was not yet known whether the F/A-18 ? worth $40 million ? would be recovered.

However, another US military official said it was unlikely even though the military usually tried to recover aircraft to safeguard top-secret electronic equipment.

Lt-Cdr Ross refused to reveal the exact location of the ship when the incident happened for security reasons but it was believed to be in deep water past the edge of the continental shelf.

Lt-Cdr Ross said the plane had been correctly maintained as required under military regulations.

"The aircraft is maintained constantly during operations," he said. "We constantly monitor how long the aircraft operates and flies ? and according to our maintenance regulations, that is when we perform maintenance on the aircraft."

Another five F/A-18s, which were also involved in the night exercises, flew to Brisbane after the incident.

"We just did the safest option, to send them to Brisbane International Airport." Lt-Cdr Ross said.

Brisbane Airport spokesman Jim Carden said the five other planes had landed at the Brisbane international airport about 12.30am yesterday.

The five pilots stayed overnight in Brisbane and returned to the carrier about noon.

cool, they landed at the international airport... now that would have been cool to see...

So whats happens if the plane is ever recovered? Would the US claim it or does it become salvage? We could always get a crew together and go an try to find it ourselves. =P

international waters.

Rules of the sea state that whoever salvages it owns it

get with the NEWS: mr khan ;] the curious mail said they are going to leave it on the seabed... good times for ameteur divers! :D

A $40 million fighter jet which ditched into the sea 220km southeast of Brisbane after failing to land on aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is unlikely to be salvaged.

last edited by demon at 13:30:46 30/Jan/06

Get with the news Demon,

they said they were off the contential shelf when they lost the plane and that the US tries to get its planes back due to secret electronic equipment inside that they dont want the russians reverse engineering. If amateur divers could reach it then they would have retrieved it by now

its prob in 2km deep of water right now

So whats happens if the plane is ever recovered? Would the US claim it or does it become salvage? We could always get a crew together and go an try to find it ourselves. =P

Deal, you find it and retrieve it, I'll repair it, then you can have first flight since I don't trust my aeronautical engineering skills.

the salvage cost and repair would far outweigh the cost of a new aircraft, thats why the navy didn't bother trying to get it back

/que spooks gtr sea recovery vehicle comment

Thats what I was thinking though, any secrets/weapons that may have been onboard, they wouldn't really want them just sitting there, even if it is 2 km down.

The F-18s aren't new, sure they get updated and newer models come out, but maybe the US doesn't feel there are enough new secrets down there to bother salvaging?

or maybe they already blew it up with some depth charges or something to destroy said secrets

Looks like they like to dump more than just planes in the ocean