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A $37 MILLION jet fighter belonging to the United States military has been lost at sea during a training exercise in Queensland. The jet was attempting a night landing on the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan on Saturday.
The pilot ejected safely and was rescued by the ship's helicopter, but the FA-18 Hornet strike fighter was unlikely to be retrieved from the ocean, US officials confirmed.
The accident happened when the aircraft carrier was 400 kilometres south-east of Brisbane, ABC television reported.
The aircraft carrier, on its maiden overseas deployment, left Brisbane on Friday.
The visit has been credited with delivering millions of dollars into the Queensland economy but it has left behind a trail of debris.
A prawn fisherman from Mooloolaba found a hessian bag filled with fast-food wrappers, soft-drink bottles, plastic cutlery and forms identifying it as being from the Ronald Reagan. Five more similar bags were found floating nearby.
The Queensland police commissioner, Bob Atkinson, said the US military was investigating, and police would help state authorities. A spokesman for the ship, Lieutenant-Commander Gary Ross, said there had been a mix-up, because bags of glass and scrap metal were legally dumped overboard with forms similar to one in the bag the fisherman found.
The pilot ejected safely and was rescued by the ship's helicopter, but the FA-18 Hornet strike fighter was unlikely to be retrieved from the ocean, US officials confirmed.
The accident happened when the aircraft carrier was 400 kilometres south-east of Brisbane, ABC television reported.
The aircraft carrier, on its maiden overseas deployment, left Brisbane on Friday.
The visit has been credited with delivering millions of dollars into the Queensland economy but it has left behind a trail of debris.
A prawn fisherman from Mooloolaba found a hessian bag filled with fast-food wrappers, soft-drink bottles, plastic cutlery and forms identifying it as being from the Ronald Reagan. Five more similar bags were found floating nearby.
The Queensland police commissioner, Bob Atkinson, said the US military was investigating, and police would help state authorities. A spokesman for the ship, Lieutenant-Commander Gary Ross, said there had been a mix-up, because bags of glass and scrap metal were legally dumped overboard with forms similar to one in the bag the fisherman found.
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