Navy jet crashes near Mount Rainier with 2 crew members onboard, officials say

A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed east of Mount Rainier in Washington with two crew members onboard, military officials said.

The EA-18G Growler aircraft, from Electronic Attack Squadron 130, went down during a training flight on Tuesday, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island officials said in a statement.

Search and rescue crews, including an MH-60S helicopter, launched from the station to examine the crash site and locate the crew, officials said.

"As of 7 p.m. on Oct. 15, the status of the two crew members remains unknown," the station said.

The cause of the crash was unknown, according to the statement.

The Growler aircraft is "the most advanced technology in airborne Electronic Attack and stands as the Navy's first line of defense in hostile environments," according to the military.

The 130 squadron adopted the nickname "Zappers" when it was commissioned as the Carrier Early Warning Squadron 13 in 1959, the military said.

The squadron was most recently deployed to the Southern Red Sea, where it carried out seven pre-planned strikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, according to a statement.

The Zappers also carried out some 700 combat missions " to degrade the Houthi capability to threaten innocent shipping," according to a press release announcing the squadron's return to Washington in July.