WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. Navy aviators ejected as they were landing their plane on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier off the coast of Virginia, a mishap that also injured six sailors aboard the vessel.
It is the latest mishap involving Navy aircraft in the past couple of years, including two Navy jets that collided during an air show in Idaho in May as well as a fighter jet and a helicopter crashing into the South China Sea in October. Pentagon data released last year showed a spike in aviation mishaps across the U.S. military in 2024.
The two aviators ejected from their E/A-18G Growler on Monday after a failure of the arresting gear that was designed to bring the jet to a halt after landing, the Navy said in a statement. They were rescued and safely returned to the ship, it said.
The aviators, who are attached to the “Zappers” of an electronic attack squadron and assigned to Carrier Air Wing 3, and six other sailors were evaluated by the ship's medical personnel, the Navy said. One sailor was transported to a hospital in the Norfolk, Virginia, area to be treated for injuries that were not life threatening, while the two aviators and two sailors injured on the flight deck were flown to a naval medical center for further evaluation.
Other recent mishaps have included a Navy helicopter crash in July in the Arabian Sea in which the pilot died and three sailors were rescued. The helicopter was supporting the Iran war, but the Navy said at the time that the crash was an emergency landing and there was “no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action.”
The USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier experienced four mishaps while defending commercial shipping in the Red Sea against attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis in 2024 and 2025. In a friendly fire incident, a guided-missile cruiser fired at two fighter jets from the Truman, downing one. The Truman also collided with a merchant vessel. An F-18 fighter jet fell off the Truman when it made a sharp turn to avoid a Houthi missile. Another went overboard while trying to land after the cable designed to bring the 50,000-pound jet to a halt snapped from poor maintenance.
In 2024, two crew members died in Washington state after their EA-18G Growler jet from an electronic attack squadron crashed east of Mount Rainier during a routine training flight. They were based out of the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. A report from the crash investigation has not been released.
The nuclear-powered Nimitz-class USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was commissioned in 1977 and recently completed extensive maintenance, repairs and modernization work at a shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. It also had conducted sea trials in April following the overhaul, according to a Navy news release.
It has been taking part in checks following those repairs, with amateur ship spotters seeing the ship leaving Naval Station Norfolk on Monday afternoon.
The Eisenhower has not played a role in the U.S. war against Iran, which has now lasted seven months. But concerns have been growing that some sailors have been stretched to the limit during the conflict. The U.S.-led campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in 2024 and 2025 also took a toll on the service’s ships and personnel.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea supporting the war, during which reports emerged of crew stress and poor mental health, as well as shortages of food and hygiene products. The Lincoln’s extended deployment drew the nation’s attention and increasing scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers.
As of Monday, the Lincoln was still on its way home to San Diego, according to a news release from Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs of California. She and other lawmakers visited the carrier and spoke to sailors and Marines, who Jacobs said shared stories of “their struggles to wash clothes, get medicine and health care, and eat enough food.”
Jacobs said she blames President Donald Trump for the strike group's “mail delays, food and supply shortages, low morale, and mental health crises.”
The Lincoln was replaced in the Middle East by the Asia-based USS George Washington aircraft carrier, which left the western Pacific without one of the key American warships at a time when China is showing more signs of aggression.
Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok and Martha Bellisle in Seattle contributed to this report.
FILE - The USS aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, also known as 'IKE', sails in the Red Sea, June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
FILE - In this photograph released by the U.S. Navy, military planes stand on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, July 4, 2024, in the South China Sea. (Seaman Ryan Holloway/U.S. Navy, via AP, File)
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City has been found guilty of arranging “sham” contracts as part of a slew of financial breaches that helped it dominate English soccer in what’s become the biggest scandal in Premier League history.
City, in an independent panel's verdict published Tuesday, was found guilty of almost all of the unprecedented 100-plus charges against it over a nine-year period in which the Abu Dhabi-backed team changed the landscape of the richest and most popular soccer league in the world.
City's alleged financial wrongdoing was worth in excess of 900 million pounds ($1.19 billion), and Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the ruling showed City “systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade."
“This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history,” Masters said.
City now faces severe sanctions that could include a huge points deduction or even expulsion from the league, causing severe reputational damage to its Abu Dhabi ownership.
The Premier League said sanctions will be decided in a separate hearing held by the independent commission.
City has always denied wrongdoing and said in a statement that it was “disappointed and surprised” by the ruling. It also plans to further drag out a case that has already run for more than three years by appealing the verdict and said it would be “relentless” in its fight to clear its name.
Any appeal by City would have to be made by Friday, the league said. City chief executive Ferran Soriano was asked for comment by broadcaster Sky News, but replied: “I have nothing to say, thank you.”
The explosive ruling comes after it emerged last week that the charges against City were expected to be upheld following an exhaustive process.
The Premier League initiated its case more than three years ago and allegations first arose in 2018 from leaked club emails and documents.
City was accused of a raft of financial violations from 2009-18 — a period when the northwest club, long in the shadow of great rival Manchester United, was transforming itself into a record-breaking global superpower that has won multiple Premier League titles and the Champions League.
The violations included failing to provide accurate financial information and submitting inflated figures for sponsorship deals out of Abu Dhabi, hiding payments and breaching financial rules established by the Premier League and UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, intended to keep clubs financially stable by not spending beyond their means.
On top of that, City faced many other charges of failing to cooperate with the investigation between 2018-23.
"An independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period,” the league said, “and the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the league’s investigation.”
Regarding the sponsorship deals, the league said: “Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on ‘sham’ agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs.
“The club,” the league added, “filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators.”
The purpose of City's “schemes” was found to have been to “artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million ($1.19 billion) during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules,” the league said.
The finding suggests that City’s rise to the top of the English game, fueled by investments from Abu Dhabi that delivered by its expensively assembled, star-studded squads, was achieved at lest in part by evading the league’s financial regulations.
Tuesday's verdict is set to bring chaos to English soccer in general, triggering a slew of lawsuits from rival clubs calling for compensation for having been impacted by City’s actions.
There’s also the question of whether City’s top stars, like Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki, will stay at the club and what the future holds for Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He is the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family who bought City in 2008 and has gone on to own a group of worldwide teams — under the City Football Group banner — including New York City FC and Melbourne City.
City has always protested its innocence in the case, saying in 2023 when the charges were laid that there was a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.”
Even over the weekend, City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said there remained a ”confidence and intent in proving the club’s innocence.”
The appeal could end up in the High Court in London if City feels the process in the case was unfair and/or impartial.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
FILE - A groundsman disinfects a corner flag ahead of the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Burnley at Etihad Stadium, in Manchester, England, Monday, June 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Martin Rickett,Pool, File)
FILE - A banner celebrating their title win is illuminated outside Manchester City's Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, May 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)
FILE - The club logo decorates a corner flag before the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Newcastle United at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)
