Posted on 09/18/2023 6:25:01 AM PDT by Red Badger
NORTH CHARLESTON – An investigation is underway to determine what prompted a pilot to eject from a military jet Sept. 17 near North Charleston and to locate the aircraft.
Joint Base Charleston said its working with local emergency responders to determine what it described as a “mishap” involving a Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort F-35B Lightning II fighter jet.
The pilot, after safely ejecting, was picked up near South Kenwood Drive and transported to a local medical center. He is in stable condition, according to a news release from the Joint Base Charleston.
A second aircraft was able to return to Joint Base Charleston without incident.
The military and civilian authorities are asking the public to contact the JB Charleston Base Defense Operations Center at 843-963-3600 if anyone has information to help in the recovery of the jet.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office report in May, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is the most expensive weapon system program operated by the Department of Defense which estimates the cost at $1.7 trillion to buy, operate and sustain the program over its lifetime. The May 30 GOA report states it is also a decade behind schedule and $183 billion over the original cost estimate.
The Sept. 17 crash isn’t the first for the most advance stealth fighter jet, according to news reports. The Air Force Times reported a software glitch likely caused a crash in October 2022, and the Navy Times reported pilot error caused F-35 to crash while attempting a landing on a aircraft carrier in the South China Sea in January 2022. There was also a crash in Beaufort in May 2019, according to a Washington Post report. The jets started flying in 2012, according to the Air Force Times.
Aviation Ping!...................
Aircraft Probably went to sea I would hope
They don't know where the jet went down?!?
Well, the last time this admin lost a plane was a Predator, over Iran ...
Maybe the F35 landed in China ...
Maybe it identifies as a Chinese Spy Balloon.
There are two very large lakes northwest of Charleston. Depending on the aircraft's bearing when the pilot bailed, it might have ended up at the bottom of one of the lakes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWqA0uyKtg4
Condensed quote for the non-video crowd -
General Graycliffe: A child with a stick of chewing gum has just rendered your hundred million dollars of hardware useless.
Probably landed on one of those Chinese rancher properties that are being bought up around our country....
Piloted by the not-so-great Santini.
“There are two very large lakes northwest of Charleston.”
**************
There’s a large National forest southeast of Lake Moultrie. A possibility it could have crashed there.
No report of which Beaufort squadron.
Transponder malfunctioning, convenient that...
There is some shocking truth behind this.
It is already known the F-35 is very vulnerable to its massive electronics and computers being disabled by lightning. The Pentagon has ordered pilots of the aircraft avoid thunderstorms. Its composite structure is not as protected as typical metal aircraft against lightning.
The F-35 cannot even fly without its computers fully functioning.
Further, the F-35 is so stealthy, it is not surprising the abandoned aircraft, after the pilot ejected, was lost to our own military because they could not track it.
The “geniuses” in the Military Industrial Complex have created a VERY expensive fighter jet not safe to operate in bad weather and easily lost without a trace.
The F-35 is the most expensive U.S. military boondoggle of all time.
Last seen in a flat spin and headed out to sea...
hehe!
It’s almost comical.
There was a commercial a little while back where a military aircraft had perfect stealth capability and they lost it sitting on the tarmac..............Until someone walked into it..........
There was a wingman. He should have see where the plane went down and the fact that the parachute opened after the pilot ejected.
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