Navy Growler wreckage found near Mount Rainier; 2 crew members missing

SEATTLE — The wreckage site of a U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler that crashed was located Wednesday afternoon near Mount Rainier, but the two aviators remained missing, according to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

The crash happened at 3:23 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday during a routine training flight, the Navy said in a news release. Aerial search crews located the wreckage “on a mountainside east of Mount Rainier,” the Navy said in an update shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The status of the two crew members remains unknown, and their identifies have not been released. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

The Navy is preparing to send personnel to the remote terrain, which isn’t accessible by motorized vehicles.

“Responders are facing mountainous terrain, cloudy weather, and low visibility as the search is ongoing,” the station said.

Temporary flight restriction has been placed around Mount Aix in Yakima County through 7 a.m. Saturday.

“The conditions are difficult, so we’re working through it,” said Cmdr. Beth Teach, a spokesperson for the Naval Air Force, on Wednesday morning.

National Weather Service Seattle meteorologist Samantha Borth said more rain is expected in the area Wednesday and Thursday as weather systems pass through. The area would have experienced rain and low clouds Tuesday, Borth said.

Mountain passes will see a transition from rain to snow by early Thursday, NWS Seattle said in its forecast.

A Navy helicopter’s search area Tuesday night appeared to span more than 40 miles from north to south, according to data from Flightradar24, which tracks flights.

The aircraft is from Electronic Attack Squadron 130, known as the “Zappers.” The squadron returned in July from a combat deployment on the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Southern Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden, according to the Navy.

The squadron conducted seven preplanned strikes into Houthi-controlled Yemen, according to the Navy.

The EA-18G Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet. All but one of the Navy’s Growler squadrons are based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station near Oak Harbor.

The first Growler test aircraft went into production in 2004 and made its first flight in 2006, according to the Navy. Built by Boeing, the aircraft’s unit cost is $67 million.

In 2016, two Navy aircrew from a different squadron were injured when the canopy on an EA-18G Growler jet separated from the aircraft as they prepared to take off at Naval Station Whidbey Island on a training mission.

In that incident, the pilot and an electronic-warfare officer were both severely injured and hospitalized for weeks. It prompted a three-day “operational pause” of Growler flight operations.

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(Seattle Times staff reporters Catalina Gaitán and Vonnai Phair contributed to this story.)