[Xploit Machine]

Debris Found From F-35 Jet In South Carolina After US Pilot Ejected

18.09.2023 - Military officials have found the debris of an F-35 military jet that went missing after the pilot ejected over South Carolina. The wreckage of the $100m (£80m) plane - which disappeared on Sunday afternoon - was discovered in rural Williamsburg County, said authorities. The pilot ejected from the cockpit and parachuted to safety in a North Charleston neighbourhood.

The public had been asked to help find the jet. In a statement on Monday, military officials said the debris was found "two hours north-east of Joint Base Charleston". Officials had focused their searches around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, north of the city of Charleston - the jet's last known location. The debris found has been confirmed as the wreckage of the missing plane, a military spokesperson told the BBC.

"The mishap is currently under investigation, and we are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative process," the Marine Corps said on Monday after the search ended.

The public has been asked to keep away from the area to allow investigators to do their work. The fighter jet was left in autopilot mode when the pilot ejected, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston told NBC News, adding that it may have been airborne for some time, complicating its discovery.

"A plausible sequence of events is that when the pilot ejected, the electronics for the transponder were fried and thus the military was no longer able to track its location," JJ Gertler, a senior analyst at the Teal Group, a defence consultancy, told the BBC during the search for the plane.

He said it was possible the aircraft kept flying after the pilot ejected, but that it was "extremely unlikely" due to "the damage the aircraft would have received from the ejection seat" and "the change in aerodynamics when the canopy is gone".

The plane, a FB-35B Lightning II, belonged to the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, which works to train pilots, US media reported. The pilot that ejected was taken to hospital and was in a stable condition. A second F-35 flying at the same time returned safely to base. Joint Base Charleston had posted on X - formerly Twitter - asking the public for help to find the aircraft.

The request led to mockery online and criticism from lawmakers. Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman for South Carolina, asked on X, formerly Twitter: "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?"

The aircraft is a stealth jet - meaning its airframe, sensors and systems are designed to operate undetected by enemy radar. If the plane was flying to pre-planned waypoints, its crash location may have been determined by when its fuel would run out. The known speed and the altitude at the moment of ejection, as well as how much fuel it had left, could have made it a simple math exercise to determine its location.

Earlier on Monday, the US Marine Corps announced a two-day pause in air operations throughout the military branch this week. A Marine Corps press release on Monday said officials plan to "discuss aviation safety matters and best practices" sometime this week. It said the missing jet amounted to the third "Class-A mishap" in the past six weeks - a category of incident that causes more than $2.5m in damage. It did not elaborate on previous incidents.

In August, three Marines died in an accident involved an Osprey tilt-rotor plane and another Marine was killed when his jet crashed during a training exercise near San Diego. In 2018, the US military temporarily grounded its entire fleet of F-35 jets after a crash in South Carolina.

Source https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66850422

[Xploit Machine]

Before

US Military Asks For Public's Help To Find Jet

The US military has asked for the public's help to locate one of its $100m (£80m) F-35B fighter jets after the pilot ejected from the aircraft. It went missing on Sunday afternoon when the pilot was flying over the southern state of South Carolina. The pilot, who has not been named, ejected and parachuted safely. He is in a stable condition in hospital.

Officials said the aircraft was involved in a "mishap" but did not offer details of what that was. It was left in autopilot mode when the pilot ejected, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston told NBC News, adding that it may have been airborne for some time.

Officials said they were focusing their searches around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, north of the city of Charleston. The search area was based on the jet's last known location. Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman for South Carolina, asked on X, formerly Twitter: "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?"

The aircraft is a stealth jet - meaning its airframe, sensors and systems are designed to operate undetected by enemy radar. Joint Base Charleston posted its appeal for help on X. "Emergency response teams are still trying to locate the F-35," it said. "The public is asked to co-operate with military and civilian authorities as the effort continues."

It encouraged anyone with information that could help its recovery teams to contact its operations centre. Flight tracker Flightradar24 posted an image on X showing several aircraft scouring the area. The Marine Corps said in a statement to the BBC its knowledge of the incident was "limited" at the moment, it was still trying to gather more information.

It added that the mishap would be "under investigation". The jet costs around $100m, its manufacturer Lockheed Martin told the BBC. A second F-35 flying at the same time returned safely to base, military spokeswoman Maj Melanie Salinas told Associated Press. In 2018, the US military temporarily grounded its entire fleet of F-35 jets after a crash in South Carolina.

Source https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66841194

[Faust]

The project costs 1.700.000.000.000

So 100.000.000 for 1 jet is way too low

[houseoftechno]

$100m will get you an F-35.

[houseoftechno]

I'd go out on a scrap run if I lived in the area.

[b0g]

that jet is programmed to disable the AIS in certain incidents, like pilot ejection, so it cannot be easily found by enemies.

[deadhorsey]

Originally Posted by b0g ↗

that jet is programmed to disable the AIS in certain incidents, like pilot ejection, so it cannot be easily found by enemies.

And wtf would make a pilot eject from a plane with autopilot engaged?

My extremely amateur guess is the damn auto pilot got stuck on & some glitch was over-riding any pilot input.

Depending on speed and altitude, an uncontrollable super-sonic (capable) jet is a death box. Pilot probably had about a tenth of a second to decide, and is having his ass chewed to bubble gum as we speak!

Doubt we will ever know the full truth of what went wrong. But even the bullshit answer we eventually get will be an interesting topic.