F35 down

Saw that earlier today. Apparently a delivery from the factory that went pear shaped.
 
A badly injured pilot (hope he ejected, and wasn't involved in the burning smudge) and a hundred million dollar loss.
If this was a new delivery, with a civilian pilot, would the NTSB investigate?
 
Pilot ejected.
Bravo variant...as was the one that infamously went down last September after flying for many miles after the pilot ejected (Anyone seen our fighter jet?), as was the one that was in hover mode and bounced with the pilot ejecting in 12/22.

This one had reportedly just done a STOVL takeoff at the request of guys on the ramp.

To my knowledge, there has been no official cause released for the last two mishaps- including whether the ejections were initiated by the pilot- or the auto-eject feature of the "B" variant.

Correlation is not causation, but sure makes me suspect- especially given that one of these aircraft continued to fly for many miles with no pilot. Sure would suck for the aircraft to punch you out when you have no clue it's coming...
 
F-35A cost around $89.2 million, F-35B reportedly cost $115.5 million.
 
Hmm, is Lockheed taking lessons from Boeing???
 
With our current 34 trillion debt , another 115 million is not even statistical noise anymore …
 
If the plane made it to NM and then refueled… one has to wonder what happened at the fuel stop. Hopefully the pilot will be able to provide insight.
 
^^^
My initial thought as well, we'd typically go "there" when an aircraft goes down shortly after refueling. But then I wrote that off rationalizing that CERTAINLY the fuel would be checked before filling the tanks on a 9-figure stealth fighter...

Or not.
 
Considering nobody else had a similar incident before/after the F35, I doubt it’s a fuel issue.

Pilot apparently did the short take off option, so it’s B model. Don’t know if the ejection was commanded or not, but Fat Amy did play hide and seek after a potentially uncommanded ejection a few months back. That was a B model, too. Maybe she’s becoming sentient.

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