After an F-35B Lightning Bolt fighter jet went missing over South Carolina on Sunday and was found on Monday afternoon, the acting commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps has ordered a stand down for safety.
Such stand downs are common after accidents, but jets going missing over American soil are not common. The incident has led to speculation, dark humor, and online social media insults to the competence of the Department of Defense.
In a press release, Acting Commandant Gen. Eric Smith announced the stand down for all Marine aviation units. Over the past six weeks there were two fatal accidents and now a stealth fighter went missing.
The jet was found in Williamsburg County, S.C., some 75 miles north of where the pilot ejected. The F35 could have flown hundreds of miles on autopilot without the pilot but appears to have crashed after perhaps a minute without a human on board.
The pilot landed in a neighborhood adjacent to Charleston International Airport. His wingman landed at Joint Base Charleston.
The base didn’t indicate where in Williamsburg County the crash occurred but local news outlets say a road in Indiantown was blocked off, according to WMBF. The Marine Corps will take over the investigation, now that the jet has been located.
The Marine Corps said “three Class-A aviation mishaps over the last six weeks” led Smith to direct all Marine Corps aviation units “to conduct a two-day pause in operations this week to discuss aviation safety matters and best practices.”
“During the safety stand down, aviation commanders will lead discussions with their Marines focusing on the fundamentals of safe flight operations, ground safety, maintenance and flight procedures, and maintaining combat readiness,” the release continues.
The other two aviation accidents include one in Australia that cost the lives of three Marines aboard an MV-22 Osprey, and another in California involving and F/A-18, also fatal to the pilot.
The Marine Corps had asked for the public’s help in locating the stray F-35.
Finders Keepers!
I’m thinking a $25 Apple AirTag might be the best way to find one of these $80 million dollar planes when they go missing. 🤣
Brilliant!
Every employment are facing poorly trained employees. I noticed Boomers, GenX, and 40 year old millennials not only have their own bad work habits but also struggle training people well. Patience isn’t strong in the generations. You have to have patience if you are in any kind of management or training position. You can’t use oft remarks intended to be humorous about a new worker but its really a put-down then the trainee rather pretend they know what they are doing just to not look like they are incompletely or dumb or slow learner, while they make many mistakes costly to the company’s reputation and customer service. If there is one thing boomers, GenX, and millennials leaders including trainees can discipline in themselves its patience, compassion, and understanding.
This is correct. The Minimum wage should be lowered to $1.00 per hour. Wage workers have been greedy and are stealing profits from the rightful ownership class.
Lowering wages and restricting voting rights is the the future of c
I’m assuming this is sarcasm…?
You joke, but it’s true. All these strikes keep happening. We need to punish wage workers so they stop their arrogance and get back to productive work. Maybe if unemployment hits 40-50% it will shock them back to reality and realize it’s they who work for the company as a privilege, not the company who works for them. The economy won’t recover until this happens. We need to vote red next election and get back on track or all our retirement money is down the drain because of the entitled younger generations who think companies are lucky to have them.
what a load of c—. As if the jet was ever missing.
The information stream seems highly suspect. First it’s that the Military didn’t know where it went. Then it flew 75 miles in the one minute since the pilot hopped out which would have had it cruising pilotless at 4500 mph.
Whomever is behind the information being shared is far too lax WRT detail.
I would not put much stock in any of it, but I’m reporting the official narrative. – sd
Suzanne, watching F35s cruising around Fairbanks, they’re fast, seriously loud, and beautiful – they bring tears of pride to my eyes… But given that Mach 1 is 760mph, 4500 is Mach 6, in the hypersonic range… Official narrative is smoke and mirrors for our enemies. F35 top speed is classified, but looking at design it’s more likely Mach 3.5. Something about this story doesn’t pass the smell test.
It’s the government. You can’t believe anything they say.
Understood. My comments aren’t directed at you or your xlnt reporting.
His wingman also parachuted?? And what happened to the wingman’s plane? Did it land somewhere on autopilot? Might want to recheck that…
Should have been “landed at” and now corrected. – sd
The Chinese are laughing so hard…
So why didn’t the wingman follow the unmanned jet. Very odd circumstances here.
Apparently, the F-35 has a well-documented history of oxygen delivery failures which could explain some of the anomalies in this story. Sounds as if this over engineered, new generation fighter may not be ready for prime time. The estimated costs for the manufacture & maintenance of these planes is an eye popping 1.7 trillion dollars!
“The jet was found in Williamsburg County, S.C., some 75 miles north of where the pilot ejected. The F35 could have flown hundreds of miles on autopilot without the pilot but appears to have crashed after perhaps a minute without a human on board.”
So it was traveling at something like 7500 miles per hour? I now know for a fact that US Marines cannot do simple math and I also now know for a fact that they assume the rest of us can’t either.
What a waste…
.
All the lost-and-found posters going in the trash…
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