CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: New audio raises the possibility that an F-35 jet could have collapsed on September 17, 2023, in South Carolina due to bad weather, raising more concerns about why the deadly training exercise was permitted to take place.
According to a Forbes investigation in November, the unnamed Marine pilot's F-35B Lightning II was believed to be susceptible to faults when flying in thunderstorms.
Sources and analysts said that the pilot who ejected from a $100 million F-35 fighter jet claimed to have lost the aircraft in bad weather and likely bailed out before he could turn on its tracking system.
The pilot is heard saying, "He’s unsure of where his plane crashed, said he just lost it in the weather," on a Charleston County Emergency Medical Services call that was posted by a meteorologist on Tuesday, September 19, as per Daily Mail.
The F-35A, its sister plane, is more severely damaged and is prohibited from flying within 25 miles of lightning.
The issue in question is with the F-35's OBIGGS (Onboard Inert Gas Generation) structure, which inerts the aircraft's fuel tanks by pumping nitrogen-enriched air into them to keep the plane from exploding if it is struck by lightning.
In an email to Forbes in 2022, Chief Petty Officer Matthew Olay, the spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office, said, "F-35B and C variants have some of the same OBIGGS issues as the F-35A, but have been able to alleviate operational impacts."
The unidentified pilot touched down in a residential area in North Charleston and was taken for medical attention. Since then, he has been released.
Military officials have not yet given a clear explanation for the pilot's hurried departure, merely stating that "malfunction" caused the incident.
Aviation expert Richard Aboulafia told the New York Post that the pilot was probably operating the stealth aircraft without any tracking systems turned on, which made the search more difficult.
Aboulafia claimed, "If you turned on the onboard device it would be easily trackable."
"But this is a stealth aircraft. If you don’t turn that particular device on it’s going to be hard to make contact. Most likely, he or she did not have a lot of time to react," he added.
Internet users claim 'bad weather' story is 'unreal'
However, netizens do not agree with the explanation given by the officials and claim that the story does not add up.
Verified X (formerly Twitter) user Collin Rugg claimed on the platform, "One of the most advanced fighter jets in the world crashed because of bad weather... they think you are dumb."
Several other X users agreed with him as one wrote, "Yeah this whole story doesn’t add up. What aren’t they telling us?"
Another user wrote, "He was flying tandem with another plane in the same weather. Why didn’t the other pilot eject? Man, this stinks to high heaven."
"An F-35, pinnacle of aviation tech, outsmarted by... weather? Either Mother Nature just upgraded or they truly believe we'll buy any story they sell. And that pilot's sense of direction? Probably uses a sun dial in the cockpit. Astonishing!" one person wrote.
Another added, "Um no.aids Not weather. It took them two days to come up with this lie?"
"Keep in mind we are in the era of woke quotas, so unfortunately there is no guarantee the pilot was actually qualified to even fly the aircraft so there’s that," another person said.
One more X user asked, "That would explain why they grounded all of them for a couple of days, “weather.” I think the pilot lost command of his jet and ejected when he no longer could control it. Whose control was it under?"
Another X user tweeted, ""Bad weather" - nope, not buying it. No way."
Eyewitnesses claim missing F-35 was flying 'inverted' before crashing
The missing aircraft traveled around 60 miles before coming to rest close to Bartell Crossroads in a rural area with well-maintained agricultural fields.
According to NBC News, a South Carolina couple spotted the fighter jet flying above them in an "inverted" position before hearing a "boom" a few seconds later.
Adrian Truluck told the outlet, "Our kids always give a little salute, so we said, 'Look at the plane. Oh my gosh, it's so low.' And it was kind of probably 100 feet above the tree tops, and almost going inverted."
Her husband Stephen Truluck continued, "It was probably three-quarters of the way," pointing with his hand. "We could see the canopy" of the aircraft.
They claimed that at the time, they didn't give it much thought because Shaw Air Force Base is just around 60 miles away.
However, they soon realized what they had likely been looking at wasn't just any aircraft after learning an F-35 fighter plane had gone missing and that a debris field had been discovered only miles from their house in rural Williamsburg County on September 18.
