San Diego

Navy Sailor Who Died After Fall on USS Nimitz Identified

Juan Jose Garcia-Herrera, 21, from Chicago fell from one of the ship's aircraft elevators

A U.S. Navy sailor died early Saturday morning after falling from an aircraft elevator aboard USS Nimitz (CVN 68), which was in port at the Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado.

Juan Jose Garcia-Herrera, 21, from Chicago fell from one of the ship's aircraft elevators in a "down position" on Friday night around 9 p.m., according to a USS Nimitz spokesperson.

Emergency services transported the sailor to the University of California, San Diego Regional Trauma Center where the sailor retrieved treatment before he died around 2 a.m. on Saturday.

Garcia-Herrera was a Logistics Specialist Seaman who first reported to Recruit Training Command in Illinois in January 2017. He completed logistics specialist 'A' school in Meridian, Mississippi before being assigned to USS Nimitz in June 2017, a press release said.

He deployed aboard the ship as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the mission to "formalize ongoing military actions against the rising threat posed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria," according to the mission's website.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service were investigating the cause of the accident, according to a press release.

A spokesperson said the aircraft elevators, which are used to move aircrafts from the flight deck to the internal hanger, are usually lowered down while in port so crew members can come and go from the ship.

USS Nimitz, commissioned in 1975, was in San Diego for routine training operations.

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