The F-35B is the only variant of the F-35 that has an automatic ejection seat. That means that the aircraft can independently fire the ejection seat without pilot intervention if it thinks it's about to crash while in STO/VL operation.
The Martin Baker website: https://martin-baker.com/products/mk16-ejection-seat-for-f-35/
* Auto eject system: Active on STOVL variant only
What if the ejection was uncommanded while the F-35B was hovering, and the aircraft just drifted off after spitting out its pilot?
There may be a flaw in the F-35B's software code that caused this, and the Pentagon doesn't want to reveal that their entire fleet of F-35Bs could buck off their riders at any time. But they did a safety stand-down to attempt to mitigate the issue.
Slowly drifting off in a hover would also explain why:
* Local ATC couldn't track the aircraft. Normally, after the canopy is ejected, you'd think that the radar signature of the aircraft would go way up, but ATC may not track very slow moving aircraft in order to avoid ground clutter.
* A slow drift away while in hover would use up all of the fuel while only traveling 80 miles, hence no fireaball when it crashed.
* As others here have often pointed out, my theories are usually full of bovine excrement.
I heard that as well..............
Kind like your airbag going off without a reason or just a small bump........
Sounds reasonable to me.
Perhaps the aircraft's AI had different ideas for the flight plan.
Good catch
It may be a bug or it may not. The auto-eject is presumably supposed to happen while the plane is still in an envelope which permits safe ejection, not at the very last instant before the flaming fireball. The safety feature in the software may have ejected the pilot absolutely correctly according to the parameters it was programmed with. That the plane continued "flying" for some time is a testament to the robustness of its fly-by-wire system.
bkmk
I think I would want to control any decision to eject.