A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft skidded off the runway and landed in the ocean while landing at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. According to Third Fleet public affairs officer Lieutenant Mohammad N. Issa, the accident occurred at around 2 p.m. (local time) yesterday. All personnel and crew were “safely evacuated” from the aircraft, which was assigned to the Skinny Dragons squadron based in Washington state. According to a statement, the crew and aircraft were part of a “mission to support the maritime defense of the national territory.” The causes of the accident are being investigated.
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The images, soon published online, show the plane upright with its wings slightly above the waterline in Kaneohe Bay, off the coast of the Marine Corps base in Hawaii, on the main island of Oahu, north of the capital Honolulu. According to the National Weather Service, visibility was limited to about a mile at the time of the crash, with wind gusts of up to 21 mph and fog. Although there is no official confirmation, this could be a possible cause of the accident. “The P-8A, a militarized version of the Boeing 737, is the most advanced long-range maritime patrol aircraft in the world”: This is what we read on the US Indo-Pacific Command website.