A U.S. Navy helicopter and a fighter jet crashed in the South China Sea in two separate incidents within 30 minutes of each other on Sunday, the Navy's Pacific Fleet said.

The big picture: The crews of both the MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and the F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter that crashed 30 minutes later were all "safe and in stable condition" and "the cause of both incidents is currently under investigation," per U.S. Pacific Fleet posts to its social media channels.

Driving the news: The helicopter that's 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" about 2:45pm local time, according to the posts. • After its three crew members were

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