A US Air Drive F-35 pilot spent 50 minutes on an airborne convention name with Lockheed Martin engineers making an attempt to unravel an issue along with his fighter jet earlier than he ejected and the aircraft plunged to the bottom in Alaska earlier this 12 months, an accident report launched this week says.
The January 28 crash at Eielson Air Drive Base in Fairbanks was recorded in a video that confirmed the plane dropping straight down and exploding in a fireball. The pilot ejected safely, struggling solely minor accidents, however the $200 million fighter jet was destroyed.
An Air Drive investigation blamed the crash on ice within the hydraulic traces within the nostril and fundamental touchdown gears of the F-35, which prevented them from deploying correctly.
In accordance with the report, after takeoff the pilot tried to retract the touchdown gear, however it could not accomplish that fully. When decreasing it once more, it could not heart, locking on an angle to the left. Makes an attempt to repair the touchdown gear brought on the fighter jet to assume it was on the bottom, finally resulting in the crash.
After going by means of system checklists in an try and treatment the issue, the pilot received on a convention name with engineers from the aircraft’s producer, Lockheed Martin, because the aircraft flew close to the air base. 5 engineers participated within the name, together with a senior software program engineer, a flight security engineer and three specialists in touchdown gear programs, the report mentioned.
The pilot then tried two “contact and go” landings, the place the aircraft briefly lands, to attempt to straighten out the jammed nostril gear, the report mentioned.
US Air Drive F-35A Lightning II fighter jets are seen at Eielson Air Drive Base, Alaska, in 2021. – Colleen Coulthard/U.S. Air Drive
However these makes an attempt did not recenter the nostril wheel and resulted in each the left and proper fundamental touchdown gears freezing up and never having the ability to prolong absolutely to aim an precise touchdown.
At that time, the F-35’s sensors indicated it was on the bottom and the jet’s pc programs transitioned to “automated ground-operation mode,” the report mentioned.
This brought on the fighter jet to change into “uncontrollable” as a result of it was “operat(ing) as if it was on the bottom when flying,” forcing the pilot to eject.
An inspection of the plane’s wreckage discovered that about one-third of the fluid within the hydraulic programs in each the nostril and proper fundamental touchdown gears was water, when there ought to have been none.
The investigation discovered an identical hydraulic icing downside in one other F-35 on the identical base throughout a flight 9 days after the crash, however that plane was in a position to land with out incident.
The report notes Lockheed Martin had issued steering on the issue the F-35’s sensors had in excessive chilly climate in a upkeep publication in April 2024, about 9 months earlier than the crash. The issue might make it “tough for the pilot to keep up management of the plane,” the steering mentioned.
The temperature on the time of the crash was -1 diploma Fahrenheit, the report mentioned.
It mentioned if the convention name individuals had referenced the 2024 upkeep publication, “they doubtless would have suggested a deliberate full cease touchdown or a managed ejection as a substitute of a second touch-and-go” that ultimately led to the circumstances that brought on the crash, the report mentioned.
CNN has reached out to Lockheed Martin for touch upon the Air Drive report.
The Air Drive’s Accident Investigation Board concluded that “crew decision-making together with these on the in-flight convention name,” lack of “oversight for the hazardous materials program,” which oversees storage and distribution of the hydraulic fluid, and never correctly following plane hydraulics servicing procedures, all contributed to the crash.
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