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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump once referred to the F-35 as “invisible.” At least as far as officials in South Carolina are concerned, he might have been right.
On Sunday, a pilot from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort punched out of his F-35B near Charleston, South Carolina. The pilot is safe, a spokesman for the station told Breaking Defense, but what’s unusual is that his Joint Strike Fighter can’t be accounted for — and while the situation has caused a flood of jokes on Twitter, there may be very good reasons for why the jet is hard to track, one expert told Breaking Defense.
Authorities are focusing their efforts “around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion,” according to a post on X from Joint Base Charleston, which is leading the search. Local news reported the mishap pilot landed safely near a street adjacent to Charleston International Airport and that his wingman successfully touched down at Joint Base Charleston.
“If you have any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35, please call the Base Defense Operations Center at 843-963-3600,” the base wrote.
“We are aware of the mishap involving an F-35B from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and are thankful the pilot ejected safely. We are supporting the government’s investigation,” F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin told Breaking Defense in a statement. According to a Lockheed factsheet, an F-35B has a range of over 900 nautical miles, or just over 1,000 standard miles.
There is nothing more important than the health and wellness of the pilot involved,” Russ Goemaere, a spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office, told Breaking Defense in a statement. “Our team will work with the USMC, industry, and all other stakeholders, to assist in the investigation efforts.”
The fighter’s extreme stealth mode has vexed authorities, who as of press time are still unable to locate the jet. NBC News previously reported that the fighter could’ve been on autopilot — suggesting that it could have flown on its own after the pilot ejected.
Asked whether the plane still flying on autopilot was a possibility, the spokesman for Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort would not confirm details of the mishap and said the event is under investigation. The spokesman said the missing jet hailed from VMFAT-501, a training squadron.
JJ Gertler, a senior analyst with the Teal Group, told Breaking Defense in an email that even if the F-35 was able to keep flying on autopilot, by now it will be out of fuel. And even if it theoretically could fly off alone, physics would probably get in the way.
The loss of the aircraft’s canopy, and possible damage to the aircraft on the pilot’s way out, would compromise its aerodynamics, Gertler explained. Additionally, the rocket motors used to propel the pilot’s ejection seat from the aircraft may have fried many of the electronics located in its cockpit.
“Once we know more about the flight regime in which this happened, we can take a better guess about where it is,” Gertler said. The F-35B model is capable of vertical takeoff and landing, but “it evidently wasn’t in hover, because the wreckage would have been very close to the ejection site,” he added.
The aircraft’s transponder, the Washington Post reported, wasn’t working, further complicating the search. Gertler said that if the mishap leading to the pilot’s ejection was just after takeoff (an unknown at this time), the transponder “should’ve been readable even at low altitude, but that may have ceased on ejection. If it were higher, the remnants of the plane could have drifted farther, and again, it may not have had a transponder signal after the pilot punched out.”
The fighter’s stealthy skin is so effective that radar can’t locate them, said Gertler, “which is why they often fly with a small device called a Lunenberg lens attached to increase the radar signature.” Based on reports so far, “there may be a decent chance that we will find this plane at the bottom of the lake,” he added, making it “I believe, the third F-35 to go underwater, following Japan and the UK.”
Still, some of these explanations may not satisfy some officials, who are flummoxed by how this could have happened at all.
“How in the hell do you lose an F-35?” Nancy Mace, a House Republican who represents parts of Charleston, wrote on X. “How is there not a tracking device and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?”
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