Crews Scour Wreckage From F-35 Crash While Not Talking About Pilot

F-35

The Marines were relieved to find the wreckage of their missing F-35 and even more relieved it didn’t come down in someone’s living room. Now, they’re scrambling to recover all the little pieces. Nobody is saying a word about the pilot and exactly what happened. They have a pending investigation which requires them to keep a tight lid on all the specifics.

Missing F-35 located

While they’re thrilled that the F-35 wreckage has been discovered someplace where they can recover it, the Marines weren’t happy to be picking up nothing but twisted chunks. That’s all that’s left behind from one of their most advanced and expensive aircraft.

What’s worse is having to explain how they managed to lose it mid-flight. The circumstances are “unusual” to say the least.

The Pentagon is calling it a “mishap.” A couple of intriguing bread crumbs fell out before the cone of silence came down. It’s been reported that the only mechanical defect on board the F-35 stealth fighter involved it’s “transponder.

That’s the radio which talks to the ground with all the flight data information that gets displayed on sites like FlightRadar-24. Other than that, the plane was flying just fine and all the controls worked just perfectly. The public is wondering if the pilot didn’t intentionally switch it off.

Instead of simply aborting the mission and returning to base for repair, the pilot chose to pull the big red emergency handle on his ejection seat.

Nobody is saying a word about whether he asked for permission before making the decision or simply followed the tried and true legal strategy of never asking questions which you don’t want to hear the answer to. The airman may soon learn that they’re taking the cost of replacing an F-35 out of his pay check for that.

Two hours northeast

After using everything they had to locate the missing F-35 B Lightning II jet, they found it’s debris field “about two hours northeast of Joint Base Charleston” on Monday, September 18. It was one of the “most lethal, survivable and connected fighter jet in the world” until it cratered into the South Carolina soil.

The pilot got banged around enough between the ejection and subsequent landing that he was “taken to a local medical facility.” He’s listed in “stable condition.” For now, hospitalization has him where they can keep an eye on him. They might decide to cuff him to the bed but haven’t done it yet. They’re waiting for orders first.

Most of the search was focused on Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, both northwest of Charleston. They were happy to find the crash site on land, making what’s left of the F-35 much easier to recover.

They’re asking members of the community to “stay away from the fighter jet’s remains while recovery crews work to secure the debris field in Williamsburg County.” According to Joint Base Charleston, “We are transferring incident command to the USMC this evening, as they begin the recovery process.

All the Marines are saying about the way the stealth fighter ended up being hauled away in pieces is that “the mishap is currently under investigation, and we are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative process.” Out of an abundance of caution, the “Marine Corps ordered a two-day pause in flight operations Monday.

After three “Class-A aviation mishaps” in “the past six weeks” they need to figure out what’s going on. We’re never going to win a war against China with zombies flying F-35 stealth fighter jets into the ground for fun. “This stand down is being taken to ensure the service is maintaining operational standardization of combat-ready aircraft with well-prepared pilots and crews.

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