Posted on 09/20/2023 7:52:32 PM PDT by algore
A F-35 jet could have crashed on Sunday due to poor weather in South Carolina, new audio suggests - as questions mount as to why the disastrous training exercise was allowed to proceed.
The F-35B Lightning II which the unnamed Marine pilot was flying is believed to be at risk of malfunctions if it flies in thunderstorms, according to a Forbes investigation in November.
Its sister jet, the F-35A, is more severely affected and cannot fly within 25 miles of lightning
he issue lies within the F-35's OBIGGS (Onboard Inert Gas Generation) system, which pumps nitrogen-enriched air into its fuel tanks to inert them, preventing the aircraft from exploding if it is struck by lightning.
'F-35B and C variants have some of the same OBIGGS issues as the F-35A, but have been able to alleviate operational impacts,' said Chief Petty Officer Matthew Olay, spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office, in an email to Forbes last year.
Audio from Sunday's crash shows the pilot telling emergency responders, after ejecting, that he 'lost it in the weather'.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I have am older, unshielded pacemaker and I am not supposed to get near an alternator or a microwave oven.
It has never happened, but I am supposed to get “zapped” if I do.
So, our F-35 has unshielded “fly by wire” flight controls?
And can’t fly in clouds?
FANTASTIC!
Hi-tech is wonderful, except when it is not!
Every center fuel tank in every airplane in the world would explode if it was hit with a missle!
Nitrogen or not!
so let me get this straight, the Lightning, is allergic to LIGHTNING? is that it?? really???
Whatever happened, it wasn’t the OBIGG. If that failed during a lighting storm, the bird would have exploded, not glided in.
And the F35 can fly in a storm. There is a very minor risk of the plane exploding — if everything goes wrong and the OBIGG had not been updated — if struck by lightning.
Now, a very remote chance is still a chance one doesn’t take if possible.
But this sounds like some sort of cascade computer failure — possibly caused by lightning. Or (more likely) someone putting in the wrong software module.
No, it can’t even fly near storms.
From the article: “Its sister jet, the F-35A, is more severely affected and cannot fly within 25 miles of lightning.”
Everything the Biden administration says about this event will be a lie.
Maybe the plane was trying to pick up a few buddies who were away from the base too long.
C’mon, it’s South Carolina We zip in, we pick ‘em up, we zip right out again. We’re not going to Moscow.
I don't think the official narrative is what happened. It's too weird. But again, who knows?
I have been posting this on this site and others.
The F-35 has a fatal flaw in being subjected to lightning strikes that fry the large number of computers inside the airplane. When that happens, the fighter is uncontrollable and the pilot has no choice but to eject.
This vulnerability to lightning is baked into the cake of the composite structure of the aircraft which makes it stealthy.
What makes the F-35 super stealthy also makes it fatally flawed in its vulnerability to lightning. It is really just a bunch of computers with wings attached.
This is a garbage aircraft that MUST be abandoned before any further overpriced copies are built.
This terrible waste of money cannot possibly result in the USA having air superiority in war.
This was a boondoggle that is a gold mine for the manufacturer and a complete loser in combat.
It’s EXOTIC.....a vertical take off and landing (B model) to replace the Harrier (for the USMC) and all sorts of exotic electronics.......didn’t even have internal guns - but the belly pod ‘fixed’ that. Oh....and let’s not forget the ‘stealth.’
It’s really nothing more than a perpetual get-well card for the MIC on foreign sales - with a hefty first line investment from Uncle Sam.
How long have you been saying this?
The F35 can fly in bad weather near thunderstorms just fine. No plane can fly through a thunderstorm without extreme risk of loss of flight control or structural failure.
If you read the Forbes article, the problem is that the system that protects the fuel tank from static explosions has shown some wear on its tubing that might lead to failure. Until this safety flight restriction is lifted, the F35’s need to avoid lightning strikes which occur up to 25 miles away from the thunderstorm cell. Once they determine why the tubing is wearing and replace it, the F35 can be certified to return to normal operational status including flying anywhere they damn well need to fly.
What if a pilot had to eject over the China Sea? On the other hand it's nice to know our military contractors all know how to use the right pronouns.
Why the pilot said he “lost it in the bad weather” is a mystery. It has nothing to do with the fuel tank flight restrictions.
He was flying at a very low altitude with no civil or military transponder turned on. This is very suspicious. I don’t believe the military can do this within civil airspace (not a MOA Military Operations Area). If he was flying straight and level with a good engine, I don’t know what “lost it in bad weather” means. This doesn’t sound like a typical eject scenario due to loss of flight control or compressor stall (flame out) at low altitude.
I’m not a pilot but have been around them long enough. The stories hub tells of are not the ones taking flak over the desert as much as the ones regarding t storms.
Since I read a report of the F-35 being ordered not to fly near thunderstorms.
A large part of the world is regularly covered in thunderstorms.
Heaven forbid we should ever have combat in or near a storm.. Still not buying it. Something else going on.
Theres something with the stealth coatings and potential lightning strikes doing some unwanted things to the jet.
It begs a massive question. Why can’t our 100+million dollar cutting edge stealth jets not fight in stormy weather?
This can mean not being able to fly through cloud structures, not just storms.
War is brutal on the carbon footprint so having eco-friendly fighter jets helps to reduce climate change
Close enough to EXACTLY for me. POS airplane that needs to be scrapped.
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