A Marine investigation blamed the pilot of an advanced fighter jet for ejecting from the aircraft when he didn’t need to, causing the F-35 to fly unmanned for 11 minutes before it crashed in rural South Carolina last year.
Military officials could not find the jet or its wreckage for more than 24 hours, a predicament the investigative report released Thursday blamed on the $100 million aircraft’s stealth technology as well as a transponder that didn’t work and the plane flying at low altitude with a system that automatically stabilizes flight without a pilot’s control.
The jet suffered several system failures as the pilot tried to land at Joint Base Charleston in heavy rain in September 2023 after a 50-minute training flight with another F-35.
Lightning had been reported nearby and the aircraft suffered an “electrical event” that caused malfunctions in its radios, transponders and air navigation system. The pilot’s helmet display also flickered on and off three times. The exact nature of what happened was blacked out in the report released to the public.