Military officials have asked the public to help in the search for a missing fighter jet after its pilot was forced to eject.
US Air Force investigators are attempting to locate the F-35 jet, which was flying over South Carolina at the time the Marine pilot made his swift exit.
“ If you have any information on the whereabouts of the F-35, please call our Base Defense Operations Center at 843-963-3600," Joint Base Charleston said on X, formerly known as Twitter
Any Charleston members check y’all’s backyards! :lol:
Okay, I’m not an aviation expert or anything but given where he punched out at, and the direction he was headed, they can’t estimate where it went down? WTF?
The Cornfield Bomber, pictured here shortly after earning its nickname.
Main article: Cornfield Bomber
On 2 February 1970, an F-106 of the 71st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, piloted by Captain Gary Foust, entered a flat spin over Montana. Foust followed procedures and ejected from the aircraft. The resulting change of balance caused the aircraft to stabilize and later land “wheels up” in a snow-covered field, suffering only minor damage. The aircraft, promptly nicknamed “The Cornfield Bomber”, was then sent back to base by rail, repaired and returned to service, and is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.[63]
So being in an MOS where we reviewed a lot of incident reports straight COMNAVAIRFOR (Navy Aviation command) it depends a lot of the failure and on the conditions of the flight at the time (Speed, direction, pitch, yaw, as well as weather conditions). A Marine pilot who knew that the plane was unsafe directly after take off tried to aim the jet to the ocean, and thought he allowed enough time for him to eject on land but the plane to glide into the ocean ejected just for the plane to then nose dive into a house in La Jolla California (08) killing a grandparents and a 1 year old they were watching. There was another Harrier crash in 2010 where the pilot ejected and the plane flew for about 12 more miles before finally crashing in some swamp land in Florida. Having been on the USS Boxer (13th MEU) and watch a Harrier go into the water (March 29, 2011) you would think that the Harrier wouldn’t have been able to maintain a glide for that long where a F18 would, but certain times it’s just what was going on when the pilot ejected.
Isn’t this the second f35 they’ve lost? Didn’t they dump one into the ocean near chicom waters awhile back?
I bet this one is already on its way to China. In all honesty planes like that need a self destruct. If you eject, it blows itself up however long afterwards. I don’t care about the financial cost, rather that than it ending up in chicom hands.
That’s not what happened regarding the F18. He was on final approach to land with a single engine when his remaining engine flamed out. He reportedly tried to aim it in a small ravine before ejecting but it landed on the house, killing 3 generations (grandparents, mom, child). I won’t go into more details than that, other than to say I was flying F18s in that squadron at the time.
That’s interesting because the Maintenance personnel and officers were all relived due to this, but the Pilot went back into another slot, which you probably remember was scrutinized heavily by the San Diego press.
I remember vividly. I was in the ready room and writing the schedule that day. All of the toxic leadership we had were relieved for very good reason. The pilot was cleared after 3 or 4 months (I can’t remember how long it took), I lost touch with him after that.
From what I’ve read the higher-ups took a hit for ordering him to divert to Miramar instead of going to North Island where he was originally directed to, which was closer and didn’t have any housing on the approach. But I’m sure they didn’t want to deal with the hassle of getting one of their aircraft back from there to Miramar, just land the damn thing back here already! [paraphrasing]
That was the training squadron, which I heard about the reputation that they had with certain maintainers as it was a non-deployable squadron. I’m sure your version of events are correct, as I was a 22 year LCPL who was on my way to HMH-West in Iraq weeks later. As far as toxic leadership, I feel like there was a good amount of that in the Wing, too many guys who read the Great Santini and thought that was the model for a Squadron commander, the best one’s I served with where more grounded, but as the common phrase is with the Marines, " I loved my time in the Corps, I only wish I could change it"
The Marine Corps is pausing its aviation operations for two days as the disappearance of a Marine Corps F-35B jet over South Carolina on Sunday remains unsolved.
The Corps’ Monday statement announcing the standdown cited three recent significant mishaps involving Marine aircraft.
That’s exactly right. We were always taught not to pass up a good runway in an emergency but that’s exactly what he was told to do. Ultimately it was the pilot in command’s decision but he had all the leadership telling him to come back to Miramar. I listened to the recordings between him and ATC and approach confirmed several times he didn’t want North Island. That was one of several incidents that led to me deciding not to fly for the Corps anymore.
