Sophia Ankel
Mon, September 18, 2023
An F-35 fighter jet flies over the sky during the Fleet Week in San Francisco, California, United States on October 7, 2022.
A F-35 jet has been lost in South Carolina after a training "mishap," officials said Sunday.
The US military is now appealing to the public to help find the missing jet.
The pilot of the jet was able to parachute away safely and is in a stable condition, officials said.
The US military has asked the public to help find its missing F-35 jet after the pilot had to eject while training over South Carolina on Sunday.
In a Facebook post, Joint Base Charleston said it was "responding to a mishap involving an F-35B Lightning II jet from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT) 501 with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing."
"Emergency response teams are still trying to locate the F-35. The public is asked to cooperate with military and civilian authorities as the effort continues," it added.
The appeal, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, encouraged anyone with information to contact its operations center.
The F-35, a fifth-generation stealth fighter, is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons system, according to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Officials estimated it would cost American taxpayers about $1.7 trillion to "buy, operate, and sustain the aircraft and systems over its lifetime," the GAO reported
Details regarding what prompted the training mishap are still under investigation.
The pilot, who was not named, was able to parachute safely into North Charleston. He was taken to hospital and is in stable condition. The pilot's wingman safely landed in a separate aircraft, according to local news outlet WCBD.
At the time of writing, the search for the jet — or its remains — has focused on two lakes north of North Charleston, namely Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, CBS News reported.
Nancy Mace, a local congresswoman tweeted on Sunday: "How in the hell do you lose an F-35? How is there not a tracking device and we're asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?"
Lockheed Martin's high-tech, fifth-generation multi-role stealth aircraft is designed for strike missions and has a top speed of around Mach 1.6, or about 1,228 mph, Insider previously reported.
Representatives for Joint Base Charleston did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
The Marines Lost A $90-Million F-35B Jet. Have You Seen It?
Erin Marquis
Mon, September 18, 2023
A US marine checks a F-35B fighter jet during a press tour of the USS Makin Island
An F-35B fighter jet is currently missing following a mishap that forced its pilot to eject near Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday. Have you seen it? Because the U.S. Marines are having a dilly of a pickle trying to locate its $90-million fighter jet.
The pilot is safe and was treated for injuries at a local hospital a spokesperson for the Joint Base Charleston told the Wall Street Journal:
“We are currently still gathering more information and assessing the situation,” a Corps spokesperson said. “The mishap will be under investigation.”
Oof. It seems the current theory is this F-35 may have ditched into the drink, either Lake Moultrie or Lake Marion in South Carolina. In that case, it’s only a matter of time before the plane is located, as neither lake exceeds 75 feet of depth.
This isn’t exactly the first time an F-35 has dumped into water. Last year, the U.S. Navy managed to fish one out of the South China Sea at a depth of 12,000 feet. The British managed to find one of their crashed F-35s in the Mediterranean in 2021.
And of course, this multi-million dollar plan comes with locators and GPS trackers that should make finding it a breeze. Still, the Joint Base put out the call on X (formerly known as Twitter) to see if anyone had spotted the jet:
Posting on Twitter that you’re looking for something is more appropriate for say, finding the right pair of shoes for an outfit, or announcing your parakeet has gone missing. And, unfortunately, if you do find the F-35, you are unlikely to get to keep the jet, as the U.S. government rarely adheres to the Supreme Court Decision Finders v. Keepers.
The F-35 has been a controversial jet ever since Lockheed Martin started cranking these fighters out back in 2015. One of the most technologically advanced jet fighters ever build, the F-35B in particular seemed to have a problem during those super neat vertical takeoffs and landing. Three dropped out of the sky last year while attempting the maneuver. Several high profile crashes have occurred since then, but nothing out of the realm of normality, according to the U.S. Air Force.
Jalopnik
A missing F-35 stealth fighter may have kept flying after its pilot ejected. A pilotless Soviet jet once flew 500 miles before crashing in NATO territory.
Chris Panella
Updated Mon, 18 September 2023
An F-35B Lightning II with 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing crosses the Pacific from Yuma, Ariz. to Iwakuni, Japan, on Jan. 9, 2017.Sgt. Lillian Stephens/US Marine Corps
An F-35 stealth fighter went missing after a pilot ejected during a "mishap" on Sunday afternoon.
It's unclear if the jet was left on autopilot and continued flying or if it crashed somewhere.
If it kept flying, as reports indicate it may have, it could echo a Cold War incident involving a Soviet aircraft.
The curious case of a missing F-35 stealth fighter in South Carolina has authorities — and civilians — searching high and low, especially considering the jet may have continued flying on its own for some time even after its pilot ejected.
As surprising as a rogue jet on autopilot may be, it wouldn't be the first time a military aircraft has flown on without its pilot. Toward the end of the Cold War, for example, one Soviet pilot witnessed his jet fly off without him after he ejected from it and continue flying for over 500 miles.
On Sunday afternoon, Joint Base Charleston confirmed a "mishap involving an F-35B Lightning II jet" in which the pilot had to eject. Joint Base Charleston didn't give further details on the incident or what specifically prompted the ejection, but it did request the public's help in locating the missing jet.
"Emergency response teams are still trying to locate the F-35," the base said on Facebook, adding on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that if anyone had "any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35," they should call in.
Joint Base Charleston also noted efforts to locate the jet would be focused north of the base, "around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion," based on the jet's last known location, in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration.
Officials haven't confirmed or denied if the jet crashed, although Joint Base Charleston spokesperson Jeremy Huggins told NBC News the jet was left in autopilot mode when the pilot ejected from the aircraft, meaning it could've remained airborne for a time, though as of midday on Monday, authorities were certain it was no longer flying.
Flight radar data showed the paths of aircraft searching for the missing F-35 in the areas where it was last tracked.
The US Marine Corps and Joint Base Charleston didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on whether or not the autopilot was engaged and the possibility that the aircraft could have flown after the pilot ejected.
But if the F-35 was still flying in a so-called "zombie state" after its pilot ejected, the bizarre situation would echo a Cold War-era incident involving a pilotless Soviet MiG-23.
In July 1989, Belgium was up in arms after a Soviet MiG-23 fighter jet crashed into a man's home outside the western city of Kortrijk, killing the resident, The New York Times reported at the time. The MiG-23 pilot had apparently ejected while flying over Poland after experiencing an alleged "malfunction."
But rather than crashing, the MiG-23 continued flying for around 560 miles on autopilot, easily passing over East and West Germany and the Netherlands before it finally crashed. The Belgian Foreign Minister at the time noted that the jet had been picked up by NATO radar more than an hour before it crashed, yet there was no Soviet response, including to questions about what weaponry the jet was carrying.
Another similar incident in which a military aircraft flew on, though not nearly as far, after its pilot ejected is the 1970 "Cornfield Bomber" incident that saw a Convair F-106 Delta Dart interceptor fighter land, surprisingly in one piece, in a farm field in Montana without a pilot.
And as for the currently missing F-35, authorities are still having trouble tracking it. Huggins told The Washington Post the jet's transponder, which helps locate the aircraft, was not working "for some reason that we haven't yet determined."
The B variant of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is a short takeoff/vertical landing variant designed for use by the Marine Corps aboard amphibious assault ships and airfields with short runways.
The F-35 is considered to be a highly advanced fifth-generation fighter aircraft known for its high-end capabilities and stealth. Manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the fighter is expensive. A single F-35B is estimated to cost around $90 million, and the 60-year program to develop and maintain the jets expected to cost more than $1 trillion, making it the costliest weapons program in US history.
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