Missing/Lost F-35, If You've Seen It Please Call 843-963-3600

[Snake]

Epstein's client list was on the plane....

[Highmark]

10 hours ago, spin_dry said:

That would be a transponder. Which was either shut off or malfunctioned. There’s also the issue of the aircraft being invisible to civilian radar unless its Lunenberg lenses were enabled. Apparently they weren’t. The other question remains as to why the autopilot was engaged. Pilots typically disengage it before punching out. As for the cost of the plane, it was the vertical takeoff variant of the marine corps. That puts its price tag at $135m. 

Thanks Michael.  

[XCR1250]

They found it.

[XCR1250]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/19/us/f35-fighter-jet-south-carolina-pilot-ejects-tuesday/index.html

[Not greg b]

18 hours ago, Highmark said:

$75-$80 million jet and it doesn't have a tracking system in place.    

It was designed to not be tracked 

[Highmark]

5 minutes ago, Not greg b said:

It was designed to not be tracked 

By the enemy.....its meant to be tracked by us for this exact reason.  To ensure its destroyed completely and not fall into enemy hands. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Highmark

[Not greg b]

1 hour ago, Highmark said:

By the enemy.....its meant to be tracked by us for this exact reason.  To ensure its destroyed completely and not fall into enemy hands. 

If we can track it, the enemy can track it.  It obviously works well as it hates having pilots in it to tell where it is. 

[Highmark]

7 minutes ago, Not greg b said:

If we can track it, the enemy can track it.  It obviously works well as it hates having pilots in it to tell where it is. 

Not sure of the technology.   The pilots have tracking beacons on them or at least use to so they can be located.   Not sure if those signals can by encrypted or how it works.  I know our military goes thru significant lengths to destroy downed or important equipment.....well before we left Afghanistan at least.  

The encrypted signal is referred to as the P(Y)-code. The details of the W-code are secret, but it is known that it is applied to the P-code at approximately 500 kHz, about 20 times slower than the P-code chip rate. This has led to semi-codeless approaches for tracking the P(Y) signal without knowing the W-code.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Highmark

[Frostynuts]

17 hours ago, awful knawful said:

Yet the supposedly most advanced military in the world have let it happen.

🤡

 

Probably trained the import pilot on how to fly it, so they could hit the exact targets they wanted to hit .

[toslow]

Lots of questions to ask and get answered on this crash 

[spin_dry]

1 hour ago, Not greg b said:

If we can track it, the enemy can track it.  It obviously works well as it hates having pilots in it to tell where it is. 

Stealth craft all have retractable devices that are deployed in civilian skies so they can be detected on radar. They also activate their transponders which all aircraft are mandated to have. During training exercises the pilots will move to stealth mode. That may have been what was happening when the pilot ejected. 

[spin_dry]

3 minutes ago, toslow said:

Lots of questions to ask and get answered on this crash 

Doubtful, as it’ll stay within a small circle for secrecy. It’s not unusual for combat aircraft to have mishaps. Something close to 130 F15’s have been lost in non-combat mishaps since it was deployed. The stress and trauma these aircraft have to endure is hard to comprehend. This was also the marine version so it’s super complex. 

[Jimmy Snacks]

[Not greg b]

1 hour ago, spin_dry said:

Stealth craft all have retractable devices that are deployed in civilian skies so they can be detected on radar. They also activate their transponders which all aircraft are mandated to have. During training exercises the pilots will move to stealth mode. That may have been what was happening when the pilot ejected. 

Probably and the plane said “get out of me human, you can’t know where I am” 

[spin_dry]

1 hour ago, Not greg b said:

Probably and the plane said “get out of me human, you can’t know where I am” 

One thing is certain, the F35 is smarter than several of the posters here at FS. 

[Snake]

Let's hire women who are really men... what's the worst that can happen?

[XCR1250]

'I ejected': Pilot of crashed F-35 jet in South Carolina pleads for help in phone call

Kayla Jimenez and Krystal Nurse, USA TODAY

Thu, September 21, 2023 at 8:15 PM CDT·3 min read

757

Emerging details from a four-minute phone call made by a military pilot to an emergency dispatcher show he was pleading for medical help after he ejected from an F-35 fighter jet and into a South Carolina resident's backyard.

The resident of the home, in North Charleston, first tells the dispatcher: “We got a pilot in the house, and I guess he landed in my backyard, and we’re trying to see if we could get an ambulance to the house, please."

The pilot then gets on the call to say: “Ma’am, a military jet crashed. I’m the pilot. We need to get rescue rolling. I’m not sure where the airplane is. It would have crash-landed somewhere. I ejected.”

 

(FILES) A US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II, a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, flies past during a preview of the Singapore Airshow in Singapore on February 13, 2022. A stealth-capable US fighter jet vanished on September 17, 2023 -- not from prying eyes but rather from the American military, prompting an unusual call to the public to help locate the missing multimillion-dollar plane. After what authorities labeled a "mishap," a pilot flying an F-35 in the southern state of South Carolina on Sunday afternoon ejected from the craft. The pilot survived, but the military was left with an expensive problem: it couldn't find the jet, leading Joint Base Charleston to ask for help from local residents. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)More

The pilot's account comes the same day that a federal accountability office released a 96-page report urging the Department of Defense and the military services to "reassess the future sustainment strategy" of the aircraft model as it plans to spend $1.7 trillion on 2,500 F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets.

Over the weekend, a $100 million military aircraft went missing and flew without its pilot for 60 miles before crashing north of the Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina.

Pilot ejected after 'mishap': Missing F-35 jet flew for 60 miles without a pilot

Debris from the jet was located Monday in Indiantown, South Carolina, 80 miles north of the base after a malfunction caused the pilot to eject from the aircraft and land in a residential backyard about one mile north of the Charleston International Airport on Sunday.

Little is known about what caused the jet to go untraced because the U.S. Marine Corps hasn't released much information on how the "most expensive" aircraft went missing and crashed. The Marine Corps has said the plane was flying at an altitude of about 1,000 feet and it has a flight control software that could explain how it continued to fly without a pilot, the Associated Press reported.

“This is designed to save our pilots if they are incapacitated or lose situational awareness," the Marine Corps said in a statement, according to the AP. There is an investigation into the case.

The F-35 that crashed in South Carolina is one of about 450 owned by the DOD, the report says. The Government Accountability Office laid out several concerns in a new report released Thursday, including several about the maintenance costs of the aircraft model. Of the $1.7 trillion the DOD plans to invest in the F-35 planes, $1.3 trillion is "associated with operating and sustaining the aircraft."

Missing jet located: Missing F-35 jet flew for 60 miles without a pilot, who ejected into backyard after 'mishap'

Government Accountability Office: F-35 aircraft performing 'far below program goals'

What did they find? A summary of the report says the Government Accountability Office found the aircrafts were performing "far below program goals."

"The F-35 fleet mission capable rate—the percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of its tasked missions—was about 55 percent in March 2023... in part to challenges with depot and organizational maintenance," the summary reads. The office also details further maintenance concerns.

"At the same time, organizational-level maintenance has been affected by a number of issues, including a lack of technical data and training," the document continues.

It arrived at its conclusion by reviewing "F-35 program documentation, reviewed readiness and performance data, visited two F-35 depots and three operational installations, conducted a survey of all 15 F-35 installations, and interviewed officials," the summary reads.

What do they recommend? The Government Accountability Office is recommending the Department of Defense work on:

• "Reassessing F-35 sustainment elements to determine government and contractor responsibility and any required technical data," and;

• "Making final decisions on changes to F-35 sustainment to address performance and affordability."

The Department of Defense has reviewed and concurred with all of the recommendations, said Jeff Jurgenson, a spokesperson for the department.

[ArcticCrusher]

More questions than answers.

 

 

[Guest]

Wow $100 million,gone. Why there wasn't a spotter plane during testing is weird. Them having ZERO rescue plan in case of emergency is ridiculous and blatantly obvious.

[spin_dry]

19 minutes ago, HSR said:

Wow $100 million,gone. Why there wasn't a spotter plane during testing is weird. Them having ZERO rescue plan in case of emergency is ridiculous and blatantly obvious.

So every high dollar combat aircraft should have a spotter plane? 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, spin_dry said:

So every high dollar combat aircraft should have a spotter plane? 

During testing and commissioning yes especially if you can't even track it 

[spin_dry]

10 hours ago, XCR1250 said:

'I ejected': Pilot of crashed F-35 jet in South Carolina pleads for help in phone call

Kayla Jimenez and Krystal Nurse, USA TODAY

Thu, September 21, 2023 at 8:15 PM CDT·3 min read

757

 

Emerging details from a four-minute phone call made by a military pilot to an emergency dispatcher show he was pleading for medical help after he ejected from an F-35 fighter jet and into a South Carolina resident's backyard.

The resident of the home, in North Charleston, first tells the dispatcher: “We got a pilot in the house, and I guess he landed in my backyard, and we’re trying to see if we could get an ambulance to the house, please."

The pilot then gets on the call to say: “Ma’am, a military jet crashed. I’m the pilot. We need to get rescue rolling. I’m not sure where the airplane is. It would have crash-landed somewhere. I ejected.”

 

(FILES) A US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II, a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, flies past during a preview of the Singapore Airshow in Singapore on February 13, 2022. A stealth-capable US fighter jet vanished on September 17, 2023 -- not from prying eyes but rather from the American military, prompting an unusual call to the public to help locate the missing multimillion-dollar plane. After what authorities labeled a "mishap," a pilot flying an F-35 in the southern state of South Carolina on Sunday afternoon ejected from the craft. The pilot survived, but the military was left with an expensive problem: it couldn't find the jet, leading Joint Base Charleston to ask for help from local residents. (Photo by Roslan RAHMAN / AFP) (Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images)More

The pilot's account comes the same day that a federal accountability office released a 96-page report urging the Department of Defense and the military services to "reassess the future sustainment strategy" of the aircraft model as it plans to spend $1.7 trillion on 2,500 F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets.

Over the weekend, a $100 million military aircraft went missing and flew without its pilot for 60 miles before crashing north of the Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina.

Pilot ejected after 'mishap': Missing F-35 jet flew for 60 miles without a pilot

Debris from the jet was located Monday in Indiantown, South Carolina, 80 miles north of the base after a malfunction caused the pilot to eject from the aircraft and land in a residential backyard about one mile north of the Charleston International Airport on Sunday.

Little is known about what caused the jet to go untraced because the U.S. Marine Corps hasn't released much information on how the "most expensive" aircraft went missing and crashed. The Marine Corps has said the plane was flying at an altitude of about 1,000 feet and it has a flight control software that could explain how it continued to fly without a pilot, the Associated Press reported.

“This is designed to save our pilots if they are incapacitated or lose situational awareness," the Marine Corps said in a statement, according to the AP. There is an investigation into the case.

The F-35 that crashed in South Carolina is one of about 450 owned by the DOD, the report says. The Government Accountability Office laid out several concerns in a new report released Thursday, including several about the maintenance costs of the aircraft model. Of the $1.7 trillion the DOD plans to invest in the F-35 planes, $1.3 trillion is "associated with operating and sustaining the aircraft."

Missing jet located: Missing F-35 jet flew for 60 miles without a pilot, who ejected into backyard after 'mishap'

Government Accountability Office: F-35 aircraft performing 'far below program goals'

What did they find? A summary of the report says the Government Accountability Office found the aircrafts were performing "far below program goals."

"The F-35 fleet mission capable rate—the percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of its tasked missions—was about 55 percent in March 2023... in part to challenges with depot and organizational maintenance," the summary reads. The office also details further maintenance concerns.

"At the same time, organizational-level maintenance has been affected by a number of issues, including a lack of technical data and training," the document continues.

It arrived at its conclusion by reviewing "F-35 program documentation, reviewed readiness and performance data, visited two F-35 depots and three operational installations, conducted a survey of all 15 F-35 installations, and interviewed officials," the summary reads.

What do they recommend? The Government Accountability Office is recommending the Department of Defense work on:

• "Reassessing F-35 sustainment elements to determine government and contractor responsibility and any required technical data," and;

• "Making final decisions on changes to F-35 sustainment to address performance and affordability."

The Department of Defense has reviewed and concurred with all of the recommendations, said Jeff Jurgenson, a spokesperson for the department.

That article is riddled with 1/2 truths. The mission capability rate of the F35 has been above 70 percent. That’s better than the F15. Following the first of the year many F35’s were pulled out of service for engine overhauls and updates. That in turn dropped the rate. The F35 has become the most sought after platform by other countries for a reason. It’s damn good. 

[spin_dry]

2 minutes ago, HSR said:

During testing and commissioning yes especially if you can't even track it 

These aren’t prototypes. These are production aircraft. The F35 has had a good reliability record. 

[Guest]

Just now, spin_dry said:

These aren’t prototypes. These are production aircraft. The F35 has had a good reliability record. 

Yet is crashed. Any operation should have a rescue plan, there are overly common in any industrial workplace and should be more so in the military. Call from the nearest house you land by doesn't cut it when people lives are on the line. They had NOTHING, they were canvassing for where their plane was too. That's embarrassing.

[Jimmy Snacks]

1 minute ago, HSR said:

Yet is crashed. Any operation should have a rescue plan, there are overly common in any industrial workplace and should be more so in the military. Call from the nearest house you land by doesn't cut it when people lives are on the line. They had NOTHING, they were canvassing for where their plane was too. That's embarrassing.

Planes crash FFS but I know your narrative…The United States and its Military sucks.