Eight sailors hurt in accident on USS Eisenhower carrier flight deck
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eight U.S. sailors were injured on the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier on Friday when a cable snapped during the landing of an E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, the Navy said.
Six of the sailors were evacuated from the carrier and flown to shore in Norfolk, Virginia, while two were treated on board the ship. All eight were in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries, said U.S. Navy Commander Mike Kafka, spokesman for Naval Air Force Atlantic.
The USS Eisenhower was operating off the coast of Virginia as part of a large exercise as it prepares for deployment to the Middle East this summer.
The aircraft recovered from the botched landed and flew safely to Naval Station Norfolk, Kafka said.
A team was going out to investigate the accident, he said, adding flight operations for fixed-wing aircraft had been halted, although helicopters were still flying to and from the ship.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, editing by G Crosse)
