A Marine F-35B pilot made a mistake when he ejected from his high-tech and uber-expensive fighter, which continued to fly for more than 11 minutes before it crashed near Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina in September 2023, a Marine Corps investigation found.
Because the plane kept flying after the pilot ejected, it took searchers about 30 hours to find where it crashed. The Marine Corps was widely trolled on social media after Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina asked for the public’s help in finding the missing aircraft, prompting countless memes.
The vanishing F-35B also gave us this moment, when a South Carolina resident told a local news station that the crash sounded like a combination of a screech and a whistle.
Fortunately, no one on the ground was injured by the crash. More than a year after the Sept. 17, 2023 incident, an investigation has found that even though the F-35B was experiencing mechanical issues, the cause of the crash was pilot error, according to a news release from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
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“The pilot incorrectly diagnosed an out-of-controlled flight emergency and ejected from a flyable aircraft, albeit during a heavy rainstorm compounded with aircraft electrical and display malfunctions,” the news release says.
Moreover, the fact that the F-35B continued to fly for 11 minutes and 21 seconds before coming down in a rural area nearly 64 nautical miles northeast of the airfield in Williamsburg County, South Carolina underscores that the pilot did not need to eject, the investigation found.
However, the investigation also found that the F-35B pilot was dealing with several malfunctions during the flight. The pilot became disoriented while dealing with “challenging instrument and meteorological conditions” because of failures with the aircraft’s two main radios, transponder, tactical air navigation system, instrument landing system, and its $400,000 helmet. The aircraft’s state-of-the-art helmet uses six cameras to give pilots a 360-degree view, but in this case it was “not operational for at least three distinct periods.”
The investigation did note that the F-35’s stealth technology does appear to work.
“The investigation concludes the mishap aircraft’s extended unmanned flight was due to stability provided by the F-35’s advanced automatic flight-control systems,” the news release says.