In a bewildering incident that has left military analysts and the public at large groping for explanations, an F-35B Lightning II jet has disappeared and later was reported to have crashed into a field in Williamsburg County, South Carolina. Eyewitnesses said the jet was flying upside down before a “boom” was heard in what is now turning out to be a thorny issue of the circumstances of the crash.
Adrian and Stephen Truluck were among them, celebrating their son’s seventh birthday, and said the jet was flying “probably 100 feet above the tree tops, and almost going inverted.” They said at first, they shrugged it off, thinking it seemed too foolhardy with Shaw Air Force so in the vicinity. But after hearing reports of the F-35 being missing, they knew it was serious.
The incident drew national attention after Joint Base Charleston—located some 80 miles south of Williamsburg County—appealed to the public to help it locate the missing jet. The pilot had ejected safely prior to 2 p.m., but the jet’s transponder was not operational, leaving the aircraft, which is notorious for its stealth characteristics, hard to locate.
The search for the $80 million jet, which had led to its discovery 28 hours later, ended in the discovery of debris field located in Williamsburg County. Now, the Pentagon is asked urgent questions on how the state-of-the-art aircraft could go missing for that long. Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston, claimed the jet was hard to detect due to the advanced stealth features it has.
This made it even more mysterious, given that sometimes back, Pentagon had described how the F-35 was vulnerable to hacking in its records. A report published in 2019 by the General Accountability Office claimed that the jet’s systems were susceptible to malware, that could make it impossible to use the jet. The speculation from this is whether it was a matter of cybersecurity.
Since then, Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith called for a two-day stand-down from flight by all aviation units to address safety issues. The military did not immediately release the crash’s cause, though it comes days after a report from 2019 suggesting continuing issues with the F-35 fighter’s software and cybersecurity.
“It’s extremely embarrassing,” said South Carolina representative Nancy Mace, who added that the government needs to explain how the jet fighter-one of the most advanced in the world-went missing. “They don’t know if the plane is in the air or under the water,” she said, pinning the need for answers on a thorough investigation.
As the investigation develops, answers to the numerous questions surrounding this mysterious and troubling incident are eagerly awaited by the military community and the public.