News/Commentary

No biggie, we may have just lost an F-35 over S. Carolina – can you help find it?

September 18, 2023 | | Print Article

An F-35 fighter jet has gone missing over South Carolina after its pilot was forced to eject following a mishap, and now authorities are asking for the public’s help in finding it.

(Video Credit: KHOU 11)

Joint Base Charleston, an air base in North Charleston, announced that it was working with Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort to “locate an F-35 that was involved in a mishap” on Sunday afternoon.

The pilot was able to safely eject from the F-35B Lightning II jet. He was taken to a local medical center and is now in stable condition, the air base announced on Facebook.

There is a lack of details concerning the incident. It is unclear what exactly led to the “mishap.”

Joint Base Charleston requested that the public “cooperate with military and civilian authorities” in ongoing efforts to locate the fighter jet. “If you have any information that would assist the recovery teams, please call the JB Charleston Base Defense Operations Center at 843-963-3600.”

Currently, the military seems to be focusing its attention north of its air base around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion. That is a swampy area but based upon the jet’s last-known position and coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, it appears likely it went down somewhere around there.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was irate over the incident, posting to X, “How in the hell do you lose an F-35?”

“How is there not a tracking device and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?” she wrote.

Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston, commented to The Washington Post that the jet’s transponder was not working “for some reason that we haven’t yet determined.”

“So that’s why we put out the public request for help,” he stated.

Huggins also pointed out that the F-35 is “stealth, so it has different coatings and different designs that make it more difficult than a normal aircraft to detect.”

On Lockheed Martin’s website, it describes the F-35 as the “Most Advanced Fighter Jet in the World,” as well as the “most lethal, stealthy and survivable aircraft.”

“The F-35 family includes three single-seat variants, including the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing jet, the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant and the F-35C carrier,” NBC News reported.

The loss of an F-35 was immediately mocked on X:

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