The Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower returned home to Norfolk, Virginia, on Monday after an aviation mishap injured eight sailors and sent an E/A-18G Growler into the ocean. The carrier arrived one week after the accident.

Naval aviators were attempting to land the Growler while the Eisenhower was conducting carrier qualifications in the Atlantic. The aircraft’s arresting gear failed, forcing the aviators to eject as the plane went overboard.

Search and rescue personnel from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 7 responded to the emergency and recovered the aviators from the ocean. They returned the aviators to the Eisenhower before the injured personnel were flown from the carrier for further medical evaluation.

The aviators were transported to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth for that evaluation. Six other personnel aboard the Eisenhower were also injured during the incident, bringing the total number of injured sailors to eight.

One sailor was medically evacuated from the ship to receive additional treatment at a facility in Norfolk, Virginia. The sailor’s injuries were described as not life threatening.

Two other sailors were flown from the carrier to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. Those medical movements came in addition to the transportation of the two aviators recovered from the ocean.

Image Credit: DoW

The Navy said that the E/A-18G Growler has not been recovered from the ocean. The service’s investigation will recommend whether the aircraft should be salvaged.

The cause of the aviation mishap also remains under investigation. That review leaves the Navy to examine both what caused the arresting gear failure and whether recovery of the aircraft should move forward.

The accident unfolded during carrier qualifications in the Atlantic, a period focused on aircraft operations aboard the Eisenhower. It was during one of those landing attempts that the Growler’s arresting gear failed and the aviators ejected.

The emergency response then shifted quickly to recovering the aviators from the water. Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 7 personnel successfully located them, pulled them from the ocean and returned them to the ship.

Image Credit: DoW

The incident also affected personnel who were already aboard the carrier. Six shipboard sailors suffered injuries, while three of those personnel were later moved from the Eisenhower for treatment in Norfolk or at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.

The carrier’s Monday arrival in Norfolk came after those emergency medical evacuations and transfers. The ship returned with the cause of the mishap still unresolved and the Growler still beneath the ocean.

Before the accident, the Eisenhower had finished sea trials in April as part of its planned incremental availability. The carrier was conducting qualifications in the Atlantic when the landing mishap occurred.

The Eisenhower had previously returned on July 15, 2024, from a nine month deployment. During that deployment, the carrier battled Iran backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea.

That deployment history preceded the planned incremental availability, the April sea trials and the later carrier qualification period. The aviation accident interrupted those Atlantic qualifications and sent eight injured sailors into the Navy’s medical system.

Image Credit: DoW

The Navy has not yet recovered the aircraft, and its investigation will determine whether salvage should be recommended. At the same time, investigators continue examining the underlying cause of the accident that forced the aviators to eject.

The Eisenhower’s return to Norfolk closed the carrier’s immediate trip back to port, but it did not close the investigation. The Navy still faces two central questions from the mishap: why the arresting gear failed and whether the lost Growler should be recovered.