Navy Crew Jumps Out Of Surveillance Plane Before Crash, Rescued Safely On The Ground

Two Navy pilots and two crew members were forced to jump from an E-2C Hawkeye aircraft before it crashed Monday during a training mission over Accomack County, Virginia. All four of them were recovered safely on the ground.

The crash happened around 4.05 p.m. EDT near Wallops Island in Accomack County. The crew had strapped on their parachutes as per requirement when they boarded the plane, and the aircraft took off from Naval Station Norfolk.

No one was injured in the crash and “no structures or personnel on the ground were damaged or injured in the mishap,” Commander Jennifer Cragg of Naval Air Force Atlantic said in a statement.

The E-2C twin-propeller Hawkeye aircraft was reportedly assigned to Norfolk-based Airborne Command & Control Squadron (VAW) 120 Fleet Replacement Squadron. The carrier-based early warning aircraft was fitted with a large, distinctive radar dish atop its fuselage. Cragg told ABC News the plane was capable of conducting surveillance missions and can be launched from aircraft carriers.

"The two pilots and two crewmembers bailed out of the aircraft safely," he told the portal.

The exact cause of the incident is under investigation.

In another incident concerning the Navy, seven Marines and a Navy sailor died July 30 when their amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) sank off the San Clemente coast in California during a routine training exercise. At least 16 members assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary were aboard the AAV when it sank. Eight Marines were pulled from water immediately after the accident and the seven Marines and the sailor who were missing were later presumed dead. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger had immediately ordered the suspension of amphibious assault vehicles from training at sea following the mishap.