A Class A accident occurred in the U.S. Navy last month. The incident was recently exposed. An MH-60S "Knighthawk" helicopter belonging to the Navy's 21st Helicopter Maritime Combat Squadron was on its way to the amphibious assault ship Essex. Two storage boxes containing five missiles accidentally fell off the fuselage and fell into the sea.
According to comprehensive foreign media reports, the U.S. Navy confirmed that on the 17th of last month, an MH-60S "Knighthawk" helicopter belonging to the Navy's 21st Helicopter Maritime Combat Squadron was hoisted while flying to the amphibious assault ship USS Essex. A malfunction in the cable equipment caused two storage boxes containing five missiles to fall off the fuselage and fall into the Pacific Ocean in southern California. The search for the whereabouts of the missile boxes is still ongoing.
The five missing missiles are RIM-116 rolling missile , a short-range ship-to-air missile. The U.S. Navy emphasized in a statement that it will use all resources, including cooperation with local agencies, to locate and recover the missing missiles indefinitely. As for whether the missiles will explode, the U.S. Navy said that because these missiles are transported in packages and lack key components for startup, they are unlikely to explode.
The U.S. military has classified the accident as Class A, the most serious. According to U.S. military standards, the identification of a Class A accident means that the accident caused losses equivalent to more than 2.5 million U.S. dollars or aircraft damage, personnel deaths, etc.
