Marine Pilot Found Dead After Ejecting Off The Coast Of Japan

The body of the Marine pilot that ejected more than a 100 miles off the coast of Japan was recovered by a Japanese Self-Defense Force vessel Thursday, the Marine Corps said in a statement.

Capt. Jake Frederick was pronounced dead shortly after he was pulled from the sea. He ejected from F/A-18C at approximately 6:40 p.m. local time Wednesday southeast of Iwakuni, Japan. The aircraft was assigned to 1st Marine Aircraft Wing based out of Okinawa.

A fellow F/A-18 flying with Frederick stayed in the area until it was forced to depart to refuel, Stars and Stripes reported. Over the course of the day, U.S. search and rescue efforts expanded, incorporating naval and air units from the Japanese Self Defense Forces.

The Marine Corps said that more information would be released in the coming days.

According to Stars and Stripes, Frederick was a graduate of W.B. Ray High School in Corpus Christi, Tex, and attended the University of Texas at Austin. He was married with a young son and was expecting a second child.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

It is the fourth Marine Corps F/A-18 to crash since July. In August, because of an increasing number of training mishaps, the Marines temporarily grounded their entire fleet of F/A-18s.

First debuted in the 1980s, the F/A-18 is a multi-role fighter and is primarily used by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. It comes in a number of variants with both single- and two-seat configurations and has been exported to a handful of U.S. allies, including Canada and Kuwait.