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- An F-35 pilot had to refloat a stealth fighter over the Mediterranean on Wednesday.
- The pilot was operating off the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
- The incident is one of the few F-35 crashes.
A British pilot at the controls of an F-35B stealth fighter jet off the British flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was forced out of the stealth fighter plane during air operations in the Mediterranean, the ministry revealed on Wednesday British Defense.
The pilot was recovered unharmed and returned to the vessel, and an investigation is underway.
—Ministry of Defense Press Office (@DefenceHQPress) November 17, 2021
An insider has contacted the Royal Navy about the condition of the plane, but the Marine Service declined to comment further.
The incident, on which details are still limited, is one of the few F-35 fighter accidents and only the second for an international partner in this stealth fighter program.
The first F-35 crash occurred in 2018 and involved a short take-off / vertical landing variant B that crashed near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina. As was the case with the British pilot, the US Marine Corps pilot at the controls of this aircraft was able to eject safely.
The following year, a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-35A flying from Misawa Air Base disappeared from radar. The remains of the pilot, Major Akinori Hosomi, have been recovered, but most of the plane remains lost at the bottom of the sea.
And in March of last year, a US Air Force pilot safely ejected from an F-35A at Eglin Air Force Base. In September, an F-35B crashed in California after colliding with a KC-130. The pilot survived but was injured during the ejection.
The British Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the flagship of the fleet and the first in a new class of aircraft carrier which also includes HMS Prince of Wales, is on its first deployment and operates F -35B from its flight deck.
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