Another US F/A-18 jet crashes off coast of Japan

A US Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet

A US Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet aircraft has crashed off the coast of southern Japan and a search and rescue mission is underway to find its pilot, US military officials say.

The jet went down on Wednesday afternoon, when it was flying about 120 miles southeast of the city of Iwakuni, which is located in Yamaguchi Prefecture and hosts a Marine Corps air station.

A search and rescue mission was underway to find the pilot, whose whereabouts were unknown after ejecting the jet.

The Hornet was assigned to the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Okinawa, and the pilot was on a routine training mission when the “mishap” occurred, according to a statement by the military.

Marine Corps aviation experts could not immediately determine the cause of the crash.

This was the 9th crash involving F/A-18 variants over the past six months (including a Canadian CF-18lost in late November), further baffling American military officials who have yet to offer an explanation for the aircraft’s high crash rate.

On November 9, two F/A-18 Hornets belonging to the Marine Corps crashed near San Diego. Another one from Swiss air force was lost on August 29, days after a US Navy F/A-18C crashed on August 2.

In early June, an F/A-18 from the US Navy’s Blue Angels acrobatic team went down, killing its pilot. Less than a week before that, another Marine Hornet had crashed in California.

Alarmed by the high number of crashes between June and October, the US Marine Corps temporarily grounded all of its non-deployed Hornets. Two more jets crashed few days after the ban was lifted.

According to the US Naval Institute (USNI), the crashes last year slashed the number of available Hornet aircraft for training purposes to 85, far fewer than the 171 required.

To fill some of the gap, the Marine Corps has asked Boeing to upgrade 30 retired Hornets to a new standard, helping the force to keep up with the demand until the much-delayed F-35 replacements arrive.