United States: The United States military has stated that it has finally found debris from a missing F-35 fighter jet a day after asking for the public’s help to locate remains from the lost warplane. The aircraft went missing after a pilot ejected from it for unknown reasons.
According to the Marine Corps’s Joint Base Charlesto, the debris field from the F-35B Lightning II jet was located in South Carolina’s rural Williamsburg County.
“Personnel from Joint Base Charleston and @MCASBeaufortSC, in close coordination with local authorities, have located a debris field in Williamsburg County. The debris was discovered two hours northeast of JB Charleston,” the base said on social media, while thanking local, county, and state officials for their help in the search for the missing fighter plane.
The debris was located about two hours northeast of the Marine base, and local residents were being asked to stay clear of the site.
Members of the community should avoid the area as the recovery team secures the debris field. We are transferring incident command to the USMC this evening, as they begin the recovery process.
— Joint Base Charleston (@TeamCharleston) September 18, 2023
“Members of the community should avoid the area as the recovery team secures the debris field. We are transferring incident command to the USMC [US Marine Corps] this evening as they begin the recovery process,” the base noted.
Authorities had been searching for the jet since the pilot, whose name has not been released, parachuted to safety into a North Charleston neighborhood.
Military officials later appealed in online posts for any help from the public in locating the aircraft, which cost approximately $80 million. All Marine Corps aviation units were also ordered to pause operations for two days.
According to reports, the loss of the F-35 was the third event documented as a “Class-A mishap” over the past six weeks. Such incidents involve damages that reach a cost of $2.5 million or more when a Department of Defense aircraft is destroyed or someone dies or is permanently disabled.
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