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| US Navy F-35C Lightning II fighter |
South China - A US Navy F-35C Lightning II fighter spurt conducting exercises in the South China Sea crashed while trying to land on the sundeck of an American aircraft carrier, injuring seven mariners, the service said Tuesday.
The airman managed to eject before the aeroplane crashed into the flight sundeck of the USS Carl Vinson on Monday and also plunged into the water. The airman was plant safely by a copter,Lt. Mark Langford, spokesperson for the US 7th Fleet.
Seven mariners, including the airman, were injured and three were vacated for medical treatment in Manila, Philippines, while four were being treated aboard the boat. Three people transferred to Manila were reported to be in stable condition as of Tuesday morning, the Navy said.
Details of the downing of themulti-million bone aeroplane are still being vindicated, Langford said. "The status and recovery of the aircraft is presently under disquisition,"he told The Associated Press.
Two American carrier strike groups with further than mariners and Marines are conducting exercises in the South China Sea, which the service says are to demonstrate “U.S. The capability of the Indo-Pacific Joint Command Force to emplace a strong maritime force.”
The impact to the sundeck of the USS Carl Vinson was" shallow,"Langford said, and both carriers have proceeded routine flight operations.
As China has suppressed territorial claims in the South China Sea and increased pressure on Taiwan, the US and its abettors have stepped up exercises in the region, which they call freedom of navigation operations in agreement with transnational law.
As the Carl Vinson and Abraham Lincoln strike groups began their binary carrier operations on Sunday, China flew 39 warplanes towards Taiwan in the biggest ramble of the new time, according to Taiwan's defense ministry.
China's conformation of 24 J-16 and 10 J-10 fighter spurts remained outside Taiwan's airspace, but the initiative urged Taiwan to scramble its own aircraft in response.
Chinese aviators have flown into Taiwan on an nearly diurnal base, and it was unclear whether Sunday's flight was a response to the American drills. China's Foreign Ministry declined to note.
Taiwan and China resolve during a civil war in 1949, but China claims the islet as its own home. Beijing has used politic and military means to insulate and blackjack the tone- governing islet, but the US continues to support Taiwan by dealing advanced munitions and warplanes.