Pilot spent 50 minutes on call to engineers before F-35 crash

Airman forced to eject from $200m fighter jet before it plummeted to the ground

A US Air Force pilot spent 50 minutes on a conference call with engineers before his F-35 fighter jet crashed and exploded earlier this year.

The pilot joined the call with five engineers from Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer, shortly after take-off on Jan 28, an air force accident report said.

Freezing temperatures had ruptured his aircraft’s hydraulic lines and main landing gears.

The pilot suffered an “in-flight malfunction” but was able to safely eject before the $200m (£149m) F-35 Lightning II jet plummeted to the tarmac below and erupted in flames at US Eielson Air Force Base, Fairbanks, south-east Alaska.

Video footage showed the pilot parachuting slowly to the ground as a fireball rose from the wreckage. He was taken to Bassett Army Hospital.

The F-35 is the most expensive US defence programme and Lockheed Martin’s biggest revenue generator, contributing about 30 per cent of its bottom line.

The crash adds to concerns that the cutting-edge jets, widely considered the world’s most advanced stealth aircraft, are too expensive and prone to breakdowns.

In Britain, a damning report from the National Audit Office said the country’s £11bn F-35 programme had led to a “disappointing return” in investment, with only a third of the fleet available to perform tasks required by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The American crash report said the pilot attempted two “touch and go” landings to try to recentre the jammed nose gear, but the frozen hydraulic liquid prevented both the left and right landing gears from fully extending.

Incorrectly thinking it was already on the ground, the F-35’s sensors transitioned to “automated ground-operation mode”, rendering the jet uncontrollable and forcing the pilot to eject, the report said.

An inspection of the wreckage found that about one-third of the hydraulic systems in both the nose and right main landing gears had been contaminated by frozen water – the temperature at the time of the crash was -1F (-18C), the report said.

A second F-35 suffered from hydraulic freezing just nine days after the crash, the investigation added, but that aircraft was able to land safely.

In an April 2024 maintenance newsletter, Lockheed Martin warned that F-35 sensors could glitch in extreme cold weather, making it “difficult for the pilot to maintain control of the aircraft”.

The air force investigation noted that engineers on the call had referenced the guidance and “likely would have advised a planned full stop landing or a controlled ejection instead of a second touch-and-go” that eventually led to the conditions that caused the crash.

The US Air Force’s accident investigation board concluded that a lack of oversight for the distribution of the hydraulic fluid, inadequate aircraft hydraulics servicing procedures, and the crew’s decision-making, including the engineers on the call, all contributed to the crash.

The damning report comes as the British Government moves to diversify its military forces.

Britain has pledged to increase its defence spending to five per cent of economic output by 2035 as the US takes a step back from its traditional role as a defender of European security.

In June, Britain bought 12 of the Lockheed Martin F-35A planes, capable of firing tactical nuclear weapons, in what Downing Street called the biggest expansion of its nuclear deterrent since the Cold War.

But delivery delays, serious staff shortages and significant cost overruns have so far spoilt these grand plans – fewer than 40 F-35B aircraft are so far in service.

The UK F-35 fleet has only achieved around one third of the MoD’s target for full mission-capable rate – the time during which aircraft are in fully ready to fly.

This story originally appeared on The Telegraph.