Ooops, $100 million fighter jet lost, pilot ok

WhatInThe said:
Honey, have you seen my 100 million dollar F-35 fighter jet? It's not under a couch pillow.

A pilot had to eject out of his jet during training flight over South Caroline, They're ok. The jet is no where to be found

U.S. Military Asks for Help Finding Missing F-35 Fighter Jet

And I thought I was bad with car keys or tv remotes
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These youngins' today have no respect for how much things cost today. He's grounded for a month. No cruisin' around looking out the window at the girls. That'll teach him!:)
 
No surprise there. Personally, I'm leaning toward an alien spaceship capturing it with a tractor beam and pulling it aboard for further examination. :rolleyes:

Finding out in further articles that there were two F-35's in the training flight. Why the other didn't stay with the rogue I find puzzling. At least long enough to establish a definitive heading to aid in later narrowing the search for the aircraft.

Autopilot on an abandoned military aircraft? Is that really a good idea over a civilian populated area? Lots of unanswered questions. Probably never be a lot of answers either. Hopefully the pilot had presence of mind to put the F-35 on a heading that would take it safely out to sea before punching out? At least the pilot is o.k.

The ambiguities in the various stories put me in mind of a DVD I once had. About a Vietnam-era super sniffer PSYOPS flight that stayed airborne for twenty years. Loaned it out to a buddy of mine while still in the military back mid-90s. He transferred and I never got it back. Wish I could remember the name of that movie so I could get another. It was a hoot. Thinking Dennis Hopper had the lead in it?
 

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WhatInThe said:
By the way this is a stealth fighter. Well the stealth part still seems to be working,
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Fully agree. By all accounts this training mission included activation of stealth. Probably why the wingman F35 was in 'un-stealth' mode. To provide a blip on the radar screen of the regional air traffic controllers. Otherwise, ATC would not have known there was an object of concern in the airspace. Bit of a risky do as it turns out.

The cynic in me believes the 'missing' F35B STOL/VTOL (take your choice) is written off the books but is still in the inventory. Saving it for who knows what manner of clandestine mission in the future?

Hopefully this is all conjecture on my part and the missing bird will come home to roost.
 
Someone found the missing F-35 and has it listed on Craigslist:

f35.png
 
You’re talking about a plane with stealth technology. It will be difficult to find over land, but if it goes down in water, the black box should send out a “ping” that sonar will be able to detect.

I don’t know how much more I can tell you without crossing the line.
 
Been There said:
You’re talking about a plane with stealth technology. It will be difficult to find over land, but if it goes down in water, the black box should send out a “ping” that sonar will be able to detect.

I don’t know how much more I can tell you without crossing the line.
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I'm sure it's got some "extra spicy" satellite tracking electronics, military grade LoJack.
 
Been There said:
You’re talking about a plane with stealth technology. It will be difficult to find over land, but if it goes down in water, the black box should send out a “ping” that sonar will be able to detect.

I don’t know how much more I can tell you without crossing the line.
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I imagine they mainly hope to locate it before *anyone* else does.
 
All Marine Corps F-35’s have been ordered to stand down until the investigation determines the cause of the accident. Supposedly, the F-35 that went unmanned ejected the pilot unknowingly to him. I find that very discerning.

The autopilot was left engaged during the ejection. My guess is the pilot had no time to react or he could have given it a heading out over the water. Crashing into the Atlantic would have minimized the risk to civilian injuries, but even these things can and do sometimes have a mind of their own.

I tried getting some information from the Adjutant in Beaufort, but no one is talking. Makes sense.
 

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