A Florida crash killed two Navy aviators Wednesday, and they have been identified as Lt. Cmdr. James Brice Johnson, the pilot, and Lt. Caleb Nathaniel King, the weapons systems operator, according to NBC News.
Johnson and King, both Florida residents, were declared dead at a hospital after they were recovered from a crash in Key West, Florida, NBC News reported. The Virginian-Pilot identified the hospital as the Lower Keys Medical Center in Key West.
The servicemen were found about a mile east of Boca Chica Field at Naval Air Station Key West, where they were on a training mission in an F/A-18F Super Hornet, the Navy told NBC News.
King was a 2012 U.S. Naval Academy graduate while Johnson, a naval aviator, was a 2007 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, NBC News wrote. According to a U.S. Naval Institute release, Johnson and King were attached to Strike Fighter Attack Squadron VFA-213 "Black Lions" based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia.
While the Navy did not release additional biographical information on the servicemen, the Capital Gazette noted that King, a native of Port Orange, Florida, was a standout linebacker on the Navy football team from 2009 to 2011, helping Navy beat Missouri in the Texas Bowl in 2009.
The Virginian-Pilot reported that the Navy is investigating the crash. The VFA-213 was deployed with the Norfolk-based George H.W. Bush carrier strike group in 2017, the newspaper wrote.
"The entire Blacklion Family is grieving the loss of two great Americans," VFA-213's commanding officer, Cmdr. Kevin Robb, said in a statement, per USNI. "Lt. Cmdr. Johnson and Lt. King were phenomenal young men, exceptional naval aviators, and were living models of what honor, courage, and commitment really mean."
President Donald Trump sent his condolences in a Twitter message Thursday.
USNI said the plane's wreckage has not been recovered yet and the Navy has assembled a team to prevent environmental damage from the accident or the wreckage.
"The goal is to restore the impact to the pre-existing condition and to coordinate the overall Navy response," a Naval Air Force Atlantic statement said, per USNI. "This includes close coordination with other Navy entities, state, local and federal stakeholders and possibly outside agency contractors."