Missing F-35: US military asks for public's help to find jet

[itsnotoutthere]

The US military has asked for the public's help to locate one of its $80m (£65m) F-35 fighter jets after the pilot ejected from the aircraft.

It went missing on Sunday afternoon when the pilot was flying over the southern state of South Carolina.

The pilot, who has not been named, ejected and parachuted safely. He is in a stable condition in hospital.

It is not yet clear what happened, but officials said the aircraft was involved in a "mishap".

The jet, made by Lockheed Martin, is thought to cost around $80m (£65m) each, according to news agency AFP.

Officials said they were focusing their search for the F-35B Lightning II jet around two lakes north of the city of Charleston.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66841194.amp

Hmm....

[Doc Socks Junior]

I could sell them a few GPS transmitters minimal money.

Does the 80 million price tag not include any location software? No transponders?

[Gromdor]

It could have been a worse tradegy. Imagine if the pilot didn't eject, survived but needed aid, and we couldn't find it.

[Tatetopa]

You probably wouldn't want any tracking device on an aircraft designed to be invisible to enemies.  That would be like the invisible man walking around with visible toilet paper stuck to his shoe. The down side of stealth I guess.

[+susieice]

Doesn't the pilot know where his instruments put his location when he ejected? I'm sure he knows what was happening that caused him to eject. There's more to this story.

[Buzz_Light_Year]

Ejection most likely shuts all systems down as a measure to keep it from being located by foreign agents or hostile forces. I think they should've kept quiet about it being down because now Chinese and Russian assets are probably looking for it.

Chances are they already have a lot of the information on the F-35 from export versions but domestic and export versions are different as the export doesn't necessarily have all the bells and whistles as the domestic version does.

[Abramelin]

 

[Hawken]

2 hours ago, susieice said:

Doesn't the pilot know where his instruments put his location when he ejected? I'm sure he knows what was happening that caused him to eject. There's more to this story.

Yes, one would think the jet crashed in the area where the pilot ejected. Unless he had it on autopilot and it went many miles beyond the ejection site.

[Tatetopa]

3 hours ago, susieice said:

Doesn't the pilot know where his instruments put his location when he ejected? I'm sure he knows what was happening that caused him to eject. There's more to this story.

We  have heard the plane was on autopilot, so it might have gone a ways.

[acidhead]

[pellinore]

4 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

You probably wouldn't want any tracking device on an aircraft designed to be invisible to enemies.  That would be like the invisible man walking around with visible toilet paper stuck to his shoe. The down side of stealth I guess.

They had enough trouble finding it on the airfield before takeoff, now it's landed somewhere unexpected they have no chance of locating it.

[F3SS]

This seems like such a joke. There's no way a public hotline is a real option. How embarrassing for the military. This has to be an attempt at misdirection for some reason. Onstar and GPS have been available to the public for 20 years already. Give me a break.

[F3SS]

Stealth? These jets aren't stealth, right? Even so, give me a break.

[+susieice]

32 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

We  have heard the plane was on autopilot, so it might have gone a ways.

Wouldn't it have still followed the course it was set for? I'm puzzled because the pilot at least had to know what that course was. He's the only one that can really tell us why he ejected. What was this "mishap"? Sounds like something was bringing that plane down. If the military is asking the public for help I think they will need to tell us something.

[Doc Socks Junior]

44 minutes ago, F3SS said:

Stealth? These jets aren't stealth, right? Even so, give me a break.

The US military is under the impression they are. But they lost one so what do they really know, am I right?

[F3SS]

Just now, Doc Socks Junior said:

The US military is under the impression they are. But they lost one so what do they really know, am I right?

Not really my forte but I thought stealth technology was limited to specific stealth planes with much of it in the actual design of the aircraft and secondarily with the paint they use. What do I know though? In any case, they must have transponders of some kind and I'm sure the military must have some kind of closed circuit technology that only they have the equipment to track. Excuse me for being baffled. The inabilty track this jet isn't something I can easily pass off as due to limited technology. 

[+and-then]

Looks like they've found debris:

'Remains of missing $150 million F-35 jet found' after pilot ejected (msn.com)

What an embarrassment.  

Edited September 18, 2023 by and-then

[Doc Socks Junior]

1 minute ago, F3SS said:

Not really my forte but I thought stealth technology was limited to specific stealth planes with much of it in the actual design of the aircraft and secondarily with the paint they use. What do I know though? In any case, they must have transponders of some kind and I'm sure the military must have some kind of closed circuit technology that only they have the equipment to track. Excuse me for being baffled. The inabilty track this jet isn't something I can easily pass off as due to limited technology. 

I believe the F-35 has those type of design and paint features. It's a fifth-generation fighter, which I believe means that it's made out of money coated in radar absorbent materials. But yeah

I'm baffled by it too! You'd think they have some ability to find it. But I suppose any signal generation that they could use to find it is a detriment to its stealthiness.

I don't know a whole bunch about it either, to be honest. Weird situation.

[F3SS]

3 minutes ago, and-then said:

Looks like they've found debris:

'Remains of missing $150 million F-35 jet found' after pilot ejected (msn.com)

What an embarrassment.  

The accident isn't embarrassing to me. The 1-800-Find-MyJet decision is. 

[F3SS]

2 minutes ago, Doc Socks Junior said:

which I believe means that it's made out of money coated in radar absorbent materials.

Ha, spot on!

[+susieice]

5 minutes ago, and-then said:

Looks like they've found debris:

'Remains of missing $150 million F-35 jet found' after pilot ejected (msn.com)

What an embarrassment.  

I was just going to post this too. Reports are just breaking now. They found the debris field from the plane.

Debris field found in search for missing F-35 in South Carolina, officials say - ABC News (go.com)

Debris field found in search for missing F-35 in South Carolina, officials say (msn.com)

[Doc Socks Junior]

5 minutes ago, F3SS said:

The accident isn't embarrassing to me. The 1-800-Find-MyJet decision is. 

They have to spin this right.

"The F-35, so stealthy that even we can't find it!"

Lol. Still doesn't scream competency, does it....

[Tatetopa]

1 hour ago, susieice said:

Wouldn't it have still followed the course it was set for? I'm puzzled because the pilot at least had to know what that course was. He's the only one that can really tell us why he ejected. What was this "mishap"? Sounds like something was bringing that plane down. If the military is asking the public for help I think they will need to tell us something.

Yeah, unless this mishap affected course.

I know people are incensed that the government is keeping secrets from us, but if they tell us, somebody will tell the Chinese and Russians too.   They will need to tell us more if they expect useful help.

As @and-thenhas pointed out before, there are likely to be a number of hostile operators within the US.  ready to take as much info from a downed craft as they can. Even better if they can do it undetected. 

Course, depends on how much you trust the government, it might be a trap to smoke out some suspected traitors or foreign operators.

[Duke Wellington]

People, if he ejected after turning on VTOL mode then the jet may have wondered off.

[F3SS]

44 minutes ago, Doc Socks Junior said:

They have to spin this right.

"The F-35, so stealthy that even we can't find it!"

Lol. Still doesn't scream competency, does it....

Ha yea maybe it's clever marketing lol.

 

17 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Course, depends on how much you trust the government, it might be a trap to smoke out some suspected traitors or foreign operators.

I'm really hoping it's something to that effect. Misdirection like I said