The US military has issued an unusual request for assistance in finding a missing stealth jet worth millions of dollars that went missing somewhere over South Carolina.
An American pilot operating an $80 million F-35 jet over the southern state of South Carolina on Sunday afternoon was forced to eject after what the authorities described as a “mishap.”
At around 2:00 p.m., the unnamed Marine Corps pilot of the jet was able to safely land in North Charleston. m. and was taken to a nearby hospital, according to Maj Melanie Salinas, a US military official.
According to the neighborhood Joint Base Charleston, the search for the F-35 Lightning II jet was concentrated around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion to the north of the city of Charleston, where the jet may have crashed.
The loss of the jet prompted the Joint Base Charleston leadership to appeal to the community for assistance in locating the pricey aircraft.
On X, formerly Twitter, the base posted: “If you have any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35, please call the Base Defense Operations Center.”
After the military made its appeal to the public, a local congresswoman, Nancy Mace, slammed the military with the remark, “How in the hell do you lose an F-35; how is there no tracking device and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?”.
The reason the pilot ejected, according to the authorities, is still under investigation. Joint Base Charleston received a second F-35 that had safely landed.
Near the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, in Beaufort, the aircraft and pilots belonged to the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501.
But when their aircraft crashed upon landing at an air racing event in Nevada, two pilots perished.
According to authorities, the collision occurred at the end of the T-6 Gold race on the final day of the National Championship Air Races in Reno.
The names of the deceased pilots weren’t immediately made public. Not immediately known was any additional information, including the accident’s cause.
