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US military asks for help to find missing F-35 fighter jet after ‘mishap’ sees pilot eject (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/news

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Search for F-35B Lightning II fighter jet focused on two lakes after Marine Corps pilot ejected over North Charleston for unknown reason

US military officials have appealed to the public for help to find a fighter jet after losing track of it somewhere over South Carolina when the pilot ejected.

A Marine Corps pilot safely escaped the F-35B Lightning II jet over North Charleston on Sunday afternoon after a “mishap”, military officials said, and the search for his missing aircraft was now focused on two lakes north of North Charleston.

The pilot parachuted safely into North Charleston at about 2pm and was taken to a local hospital, where he was in stable condition, said Maj Melanie Salinas. The pilot’s name has not been released.

Based on the missing plane’s location and trajectory, the search for the F-35 Lightning II jet was focused on Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion, said Senior Master Sergeant Heather Stanton at Joint Base Charleston. Both lakes are north of North Charleston.

Local congresswoman Nancy Mace said: “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?”

A South Carolina Law Enforcement Division helicopter joined the search for the F-35 after some bad weather cleared in the area, Stanton said.

Officials are still investigating why the pilot ejected, authorities said.

The pilot of a second F-35 returned safely to Joint Base Charleston, Salinas said.

The planes and pilots were with the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 based in Beaufort, not far from South Carolina’s Atlantic coast.

archive: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/vNlJ2

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Local congresswoman Nancy Mace said: “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?”

No expert, but I'd think tracking devices on military equipment would be a pretty bad idea... especially if you can't guarantee who else can pick up those signals.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The tracking device should be activated by remote encrypted signal. Then the F35 can passively listen before activating. Basically, the military needs to wander around the parking lot pressing their fob until the jet beeps its horn.

[–] TenderfootGungi 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And what happens when your enemy steals your encryption keys? Because it will happen.

[–] SheeEttin 5 points 1 year ago

Military encryption hardware gets rekeyed pretty often.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are EPIRBs that have impact switches and will activate in the event of a crash, but aren't meant to work underwater.

Big passenger jets have an underwater beacon of some type.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even that might not be ideal on military equipment. In a war zone if your plane goes down you don't want to advertise to the enemy where to find it and the pilot.

[–] DoomBot5 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, but this isn't a war zone. It's US territory. They should have transponders on the plane that can be switched off when going into an actual war zone.

[–] SheeEttin 2 points 1 year ago

They do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

There was no need to look for her affiliation after reading this reaction. Extremely professional and totally level headed, maybe she felt just like in a sitcom where they turn to the camera and say stuff like this before the laugh track comes.

[–] Burn_The_Right 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, that explains the F-35 I saw on Craigslist. I thought the price seemed a little high since it "may have some minor flood damage".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Always check the carfax!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Seems the stealth is working well.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm confused why they don't know why the pilot ejected, can't they ask him, is he unconscious, does the plane not send back telemetry data?

Also it's in the lake, it's obviously in the lake because it was anywhere else would be fireball. So what the hell is the public going to do, turn up with a massive metal detector?

There are so many questions this story raises and none of them are answered.

[–] warbond 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The reason the pilot ejected is unknown to the publication, not the military.
Also, it looks like the entire article is based on a boilerplate tweet informing the public that an investigation is underway, everybody's safe, and if you have information please contact them.
If you want to write a click-bait article based on no information, this is how you do it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Planes can and often do land themselves without pilots on board. It's not a graceful setdown, but it's far from guaranteed to be a fireball. They just gradually lose altitude until they reach the ground, which if it is sufficiently flat, they then scuff across until they come to a stop.

[–] LufyCZ 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not how it works for jets, where losing your engine is pretty much a guaranteed crash.

Regular (e.g. passenger) planes have massive wings that work with the air to keep the plane in the air efficiently, at the cost of maneuverability.

[–] DoomBot5 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's assuming the engines went bad.

[–] LufyCZ 1 points 1 year ago

"Planes often land gracefully without pilots on board"

Doubt a jet would do that, with or without an engine

[–] SheeEttin 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornfield_Bomber

Unless, like you said, they lose one or more engines, because military jets generally don't have great glide ratios.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Most new jets are fly by wire (f35 is one of these, where as the link you posted was about an aircraft which was not), they are inherently aerodynamically unstable, below a certain speed it's just gonna stall and crash not glide to the ground. We use computers to manage the instability as the instability aids in maneuverability. Passenger planes and the like are not designed like this, so they can, in theory, just glide down, but the glide slope is what will determine if it's gonna be a soft or deadly landing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah but they're going to hit some bumpy ground or a tree or a car or a cow or a house or something. It's not exactly a flat landscape up there

[–] darganon 6 points 1 year ago

Where did they last see it? Did they check behind the couch?

[–] Zehzin 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Certified F-35 moment

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So they find the missing murderer and then lose an F-35 - what next?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The murderer is going to disappear again and turn up... in the F-35!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Mishap? Is the plane ok?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Someone forgot to put an Apple AirTag on their vehicle.

[–] Coreidan 0 points 1 year ago

This is where your tax money goes

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

[email protected]