A helicopter and fighter jet of the United States Navy crashed in the South China Sea in separate incidents on Sunday afternoon.

In a statement on Monday, the US Pacific Fleet announced that "a US Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, assigned to the 'Battle Cats' of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 73 went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68)" around 2:45 pm last October 26.

"Search and rescue assets assigned to Carrier Strike Group 11 safely recovered all three crew members," it stated.

It also noted that "an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter assigned to the “Fighting Redcocks” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 22 also went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations from Nimitz" around 3:15 pm of the same day.

"Both crew members successfully ejected and were also safely recovered by search and rescue assets assigned to Carrier Strike Group 11. All personnel involved are safe and in stable condition," the US Pacific Fleet added.

The Fleet is conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the two incidents. Robina Asido/DMS