Both aircraft were on routine flight operations, the Navy said, when they went down in the South China Sea only 30 minutes apart.

It does not appear at first glance that the two crashes are directly linked. Instead, both aircraft seem to have crashed in part due to hostile weather.

China’s newest aircraft carrier may only be able to conduct air operations at about 60% the rate of a 50-year-old US Navy carrier, two former US carrier officers say, a substantial combat limitation for a vessel meant to revolutionize Beijing’s fleet.

All personnel involved were safe, and the causes of the two crashes were under investigation, the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet said.

Chinese media mocked the two US navy aircraft crashes in the South China Sea, which occurred juat a day after two US military officers criticized China's new Fujian aircraft carrier's capabilities

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, billed by the US Navy as “the most capable, adaptable, and lethal combat platform in the world,” is being sent to the Caribbean as the Trump administration ramps up military pressure on Venezuela over alleged drug trafficking.

The Midway-class aircraft carrier was instrumental in American naval operations around the world spanning from the end of WWII into the 1990s.