Okay, let's talk about that missing/crashed F-35JAZZ SHAW 9:21 AM on September 19, 2023
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The Marines aren’t answering any additional questions, of course, citing the need to maintain the integrity of the ongoing investigation. That’s not satisfying anyone following the story, though. So what happened in the moments after the “anomalous event” that caused all of this? Before proceeding, I will include my usual reminder that though I spent quite a few years on aircraft carriers nosing around (older, non-stealth) fighter jets, I have never flown one. But other people who are pilots were offering some of the same questions.
With that said, the pilot executed what seemed like an awfully curious series of steps prior to exiting the aircraft. Hank Bergeron confirmed them on Twitter.
Who punches out of an aircraft that is still not only capable of flight but can be put into autopilot mode and continue flying? (Apparently for quite some time.) And why in the world would you shut off your transponder before exiting, whether the craft was flightworthy or not? Disabling the transponder not only makes the pilotless plane even more of a potential air safety hazard, but it clearly makes the already stealthy craft even harder to locate. That just feels as if it had to have been done intentionally.
This left some of us speculating as to whether the pilot was looking to ditch the plane, perhaps even in a place where some adversary might be able to recover it. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to have turned out to be the case, but it’s still more than a little peculiar. One other theory (this one put forward by my wife) was that the pilot was simply an extreme version of the wacky JetBlue flight attendant who famously grabbed a beer and jumped out of his plane’s emergency exit, but nobody in his chain of command saw it coming. (Here’s to hoping that wasn’t the case this time.)
Perhaps there is a more logical explanation. If the F-35 was experiencing what appeared to be a more severe malfunction, safety protocols may have dictated a rapid exit even if the plane turned out to be able to continue flying. It seems unlikely to this layman, but I’m not the expert here. But if not, it definitely sounds as if that pilot will be answering a lot of questions during his ongoing debrief sessions. Those planes cost $80 million each and they contain some of our most advanced technology that would be invaluable to our adversaries. You don’t abandon one lightly.
Perhaps we’ll learn the answers to these questions when the investigation is complete. Then again, given the secrecy surrounding the entire program, we may never be told anything more and the incident will eventually fall down the memory hole. But it certainly spiced up an otherwise drab news cycle on Monday. While it was unfolding, the usual crew on social media was having fun with the event, including one person who quickly claimed to have not only found the jet but had put it up for sale on Craigslist. I’ll confess that I got a chuckle out of that one.
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WTH Was Up With Stealthy F-35?
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