The rumor mill is that the aircraft was hacked and controlled remotely.
Possible? I don't know, but nothing is outside the realm of possibilities considering the depth at which so many of our national secrets have been pilfered.
Time to dust off those old Tomcats and bring them out of the boneyards. At least they're impervious to ChiCom/Russian hackers.
But does a can’t fly in bad Wx cover story make sense? It makes the US look utterly pathetic and incompetent.