76 ms·
F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected
- steve1977 3y agoSo I guess at least the stealth part is working as designed...
- KingLancelot 3y ago[dead]
- tornato7 3y agoInteresting. The article doesn't say why the pilot ejected. If the jet were able to continue flying for hours in autopilot, maybe the pilot ejected a bit prematurely, no? Though it it continued flying I would expect it to be on ADS-B.
- FinnKuhn 3y agoWhen you have to eject anyway, you would probably want to do it in an area where you can get help relatively quickly, due to it being quite a bit dangerous, and not in an area with no infrastructure or over the ocean.
- RetroTechie 3y agoI'd think there's clear procedures for pilot of such a craft? If x occurs & can't be fixed by doing y or z, then eject. > Though it it continued flying I would expect it to be on ADS-B. This is a military aircraft. Depending on its mission, transponders may or may not be enabled. What did surprise me: if a 2-plane mission, why didn't the other jet follow the now-empty one? As a opposed to landing right after. Low on fuel? At least it could have recorded speed & heading.
- sschueller 3y agoWith all the software issues how do we know the plane didn't just randomly eject the pilot due to some buffer overflow...
- fransje26 3y agoAdd the transponder not working, and you come to the conclusion that the jet was operating exactly as it was supposed to, by design...
- belter 3y agoOr the AI they were trying on decided so...
- flangola7 3y agoHopefully that isn't a networked system. It should be physical action only.
- sschueller 3y agoEject-by-wire, I can envision some proponents for automated ejection in case the pilot is not responding or a machine is able to determine ejection is needed before a pilot realizes and it would be too late.
- SkyMarshal 3y agoIt's using a tiny subset of C++ and C, designed to prevent errors like that, but I wonder how well that works given the F-35 has several years of empirical data now. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27602606 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27602606
- bmitc 3y agoIt would seem to me that a missing F-35 is a pretty big security threat.
- hulitu 3y ago> It would seem to me that a missing F-35 is a pretty big security threat. If you believe what is written on HN: actually no, not at all.
- z303 3y ago> I'd think there's clear procedures for pilot of such a craft? If x occurs & can't be fixed by doing y or z, then eject. Indeed they do (or at least did) https://youtu.be/Aa1Ba_NEobs https://youtu.be/Aa1Ba_NEobs
- hulitu 3y ago> maybe the pilot ejected a bit prematurely, no? He just wanted to be sure. With all those issues F35 had i wouldn't think twice when to eject. /s
- belter 3y agoIf you happen to find it report here: https://twitter.com/TeamCharleston/status/1703523385475534968?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet https://twitter.com/TeamCharleston/status/170352338547553496... Please no jokes about losing a stealth fighter...
- pbak 3y ago"Yuri, you lost another submarine ... ?"
- hef19898 3y agoAren't those F-39s invisible anyway?
- belter 3y agoWe are looking for an F-35...You were not supposed to disclose the existance of the F-39 ;-)
- devoutsalsa 3y agoF-35 > F-39 # true
- bombcar 3y agoI’m wondering where they get the keyboards for these; I have a IBM terminal keyboard and it only goes up to F-24.
- zarmin 3y agoIt's at Diego Garcia with MH370
- Stevvo 3y agoA B-17 once landed at an airfield in Belgium without any crew on board. Just by chance it was pointing in the right direction, with the right amount of lift and drag and thrust.
- 1659447091 3y agoThis sounded like there had to be more to it but found this [1] and it makes it even weirder. > The parachutes were still onboard and no indication of gunfire or blood caused by hostile attacks were seen on the plane. [1] https://worldwarwings.com/still-unsolved-story-of-b-17-landing-with-crew-missing/ https://worldwarwings.com/still-unsolved-story-of-b-17-landi...
- i80and 3y agoA Quora answer[1] suggests that the "parachutes" found were just the empty packs, and the crew was found safe. That the plane landed intact is pretty cool though! [1] https://www.quora.com/What-happened-to-the-crew-of-the-B-17-ghost-bomber-that-landed-empty-in-WW2 https://www.quora.com/What-happened-to-the-crew-of-the-B-17-...
- ggambetta 3y agoFTA: "The Second World War II"...
- idontwantthis 3y agoI think there were experiments with RC B17s. I wonder if this was one and they chose to emergency land it but had to keep it a secret from the Belgian airfield crew.
- satiric 3y agoWhen my grandpa was navigating B24's in WWII, he saw a B24's wing flying by itself. The Japanese had set the plane on fire from nose to tail, and the body separated from the wings. The B24 has the wings on top of the fuselage, so the wings could stay together. The body, of course, fell into the clouds below, but the wings stayed aloft. And naturally, because they didn't have to carry a fuselage around, they accelerated, and lazily curved out of sight of grandpa, who thought he might have been the only person to ever see something like that (and survive to tell the tale...)
- expertentipp 3y ago[flagged]
- brettermeier 3y agoWhere are the parallels? I don't see them...
- expertentipp 3y agoThey operate in real time Reapers on the other side of the globe, have constellations of all kinds of satellites, they know from my iphone that my parents have just visited, yet state of the art F-35 "disappeared"?
- Zetobal 3y agoGibt bestimmt ne DIN Norm für...
- expertentipp 3y agoDon't speak Spanish, sorry.
- thebutcher 3y ago[dead]
- SanderNL 3y agoSometimes it's hard to just accept reality: even the big, mighty and omnipresent supernatural and all-knowing Government(tm) is just a bunch of non-magical, non-demonic regular folks trying to keep things on the rails. It usually works out OK, but there's a lot of rails and a lot of stuff to keep on them.
- defrost 3y agoThe big question here is was it a Martin-Baker ejection seat? If so, there's a limited edition high end wristwatch in it for the pilot: https://us.bremont.com/pages/explore-bremont-partnerships-martin-baker https://us.bremont.com/pages/explore-bremont-partnerships-ma...
- netsharc 3y agoSimple enough to google, yes it is: https://martin-baker.com/products/mk16-ejection-seat-for-f-35/ https://martin-baker.com/products/mk16-ejection-seat-for-f-3...
- lbourdages 3y agoIt's more affordable than I thought, I expected one more zero on the price tag...
- amelius 3y agoA watch without GPS?
- z303 3y agoand a Tie https://martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/ https://martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/
- andrewstuart 3y agoThis is a fine timepiece. A worthy chronometer to suit a crashed pilot.
- m000 3y agoDefinitely a SPECTRE operation.
- jeffrallen 3y agoUFO: Unfound flying object?
- Cryptoclidus 3y agoUNFO: *not flying
- hoseja 3y agoWhy don't they fly with transponders on during training, precisely for this reason?
- null0ranje 3y agoIt was inop at the time: "The jet’s transponder, which usually helps locate the aircraft, was not working “for some reason that we haven’t yet determined,” said Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston. “So that’s why we put out the public request for help.”
- hef19898 3y agoOh, someone sure is going to have to answer some tough questions. If not in purely military airspace, or combat operations, military aircraft have to be airworthy according to civil standards. That being said, no casualties, loosing a stealth fighter is somewhat funny.
- mwint 3y agoIf it was a two-ship, could have been only the lead had their transponder on. Keeps the ATC traffic alert systems a little happier.
- hoseja 3y agoThanks, haven't yet read the article through when I commented, stupid of me.
- k12sosse 3y agoYou know where they're going to find it? The last place they look
- juanani 3y ago[dead]
- kavalg 3y agoCould it be hijacked by an adversary that hacked into the plane's computer?
- yabones 3y agoHave they said whether the transponder was active on the jet? They usually have the ADSB beacon live when flying near airports, but if it was turned off it would be a bit trickier to find. Also, if the retroreflector wasn't extended it might be hard for active radar to track it as well. Worst case scenario would be if it was in "full stealth" mode -- that would be the situation where we discover that NORAD air defense systems can't detect our own jets!
- seatac76 3y agoIt wasn’t active, reasons were not given. [1] [1] https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/f-35-cant-be-found-after-pilot-ejected https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/f-35-cant-be-found-aft...
- giantg2 3y agoThey should be able to track gross location on radar. The stealth capabilities are mostly focused on thwarting precise location and missile guidance radars. The issue here is finding the precise crash site. General location should be known. Trying to find it under the tree canopy could be more challenging depending on how rural it is.
- giarc 3y agoI think they do have the general location, they keep mentioning two lakes near the base. So I suspect it's at the bottom of one of them, although then it's odd they are asking for public help finding them.
- jvm___ 3y ago"Dagobah" was how I heard the search area described. Or parts of it at least. "The weather was horrible" when the pilot ejected, so if it was pouring rain and slipped nicely into a swamp somewhere - and then the rain doused anything smoking...
- Turing_Machine 3y agoFor that matter, Joint Base Charleston is only around 25 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. It doesn't take a Mach 1.6 aircraft very long to go 25 miles. That's only about 75 seconds of flight time.
- carbonPr1m8 3y ago[flagged]
- 542458 3y agoI’m surprised that a crashing F-35 wouldn’t generate enough fire and smoke to be easily detected.
- josefresco 3y agoMaybe not? This article references some examples of planes landing intact: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/f-35-cant-be-found-after-pilot-ejected https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/f-35-cant-be-found-aft...
- ikeashark 3y agoPlanes like the F-22 are inherently aerodynamically unstable because it allows then to be highly maneuverable, The stability of the aircraft is handled by the electronics. So back then planes of the that type would be able to just glide down and land but with a F-22 or any modern military jet, it wouldn't.
- gonzo41 3y agoIt could fly until it finds ocean, runs out of fuel and then darts in. My god think of the bill.
- kashunstva 3y agoIf the plane is in trim (does the F35 even have manual trim?) and/or on autopilot, I can see a long glide to somewhere with a stable flight path, at least until the loss of thrust due to fuel exhaustion leads to an aerodynamic stall. But in of these circumstances, there would have been no need for the pilot to eject. Strange indeed.
- giarc 3y agoIt's the most advanced plane the military has. You would think that an eject would trigger some additional communications or allow remote control of the jet.
- tibbydudeza 3y agoWell they still missing an atom bomb from 1958 dropped by a B47 bomber near Tybee island Georgia.
- polynomial 3y agoWait, whaat?
- ceejayoz 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_coll... It's not the only missing nuke, either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Mars_Bluff_B-47_nuclear_weapon_loss_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Mars_Bluff_B-47_nuclear_w... is probably the (darkly) funniest one in the list. That one was recovered, but "the Air Force tried to nuke my kids' play house" is a story not many people can tell.
- tomatotomato37 3y agoFortunately, the fissile nuclear core was stored elsewhere on the aircraft While I'll admit that is very effective failsafe, did they actually require the crew to do bomb surgery with a demon core during flight if they needed to arm the device?
- ceejayoz 3y agoYeah, the early ones were designed to be armed in-flight. https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/mk6.htm https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/mk6.htm > This weapon was a capsule bomb, meaning that the nuclear material for the bomb was kept in a special capsule separate from the rest of the device for safety's sake. Just before the bomb was to be dropped from the delivery aircraft the capsule was inserted into the bomb casing and the weapon became armed. It was also the first atomic weapon to offer the delivery aircraft's bombardier the option of changing the detonation altitude while the bomber was in flight to the target.
- 3y ago
- Fluorescence 3y agoThis sounds too ridiculous to be true. I'd be more inclined to believe that it's a gambit to flush out an intelligence leak rather than an inability to find their own $160M plane.
- delfinom 3y ago[flagged]
- NavinF 3y agoWe don't have children starving in schools
- woodruffw 3y agoAs of 2021, roughly 1 in 8 children in the US experience food insecurity[1]. [1]: https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/child-hunger-facts https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/child-hunge...
- ensignavenger 3y ago"food insecurity" is not the same as starving.
- kkielhofner 3y agoYou would probably have a different perspective if you were in that situation, especially as a child. EDIT: Downvotes for compassion, HN is rough today!
- ensignavenger 3y agoI grew up in a household that would qualify. I know exactly how I feel about it having experienced it as a child.
- 3y ago
- h2odragon 3y agoWhy shouldn't "finders keepers" apply here? If their jet crashed, unoccupied, on my land, why ain't it mine now? At least do the "prize value" salvage reward they do for ships.
- floatrock 3y agoSadly the law of salvage is only part of maritime law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_salvage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_salvage Hills of south carolina are out of its juristiction.
- ganoushoreilly 3y agofortunately in the low country.. there really aren't hills just marshes and wetlands, but in all seriousness it would be a pretty cool salvage for someone
- btbuildem 3y agoAn 80's movie dream is playing out for some rural kids, where they stumble upon a smouldering high-tech wreckage and as they explore it, men in suits pour out of black SUVs and talk to them in taciturn ways. Seriously though, these jets sound terribly overpriced for how unreliable they seem to be.
- Rebelgecko 3y agoI think so far the F-35 has had 1 death and maybe half a dozen crashes in hundreds of thousands of hours of operation. Just from perusing the stats for other military planes that seems pretty good actually.
- weinzierl 3y agoMaybe you are thinking of The Machine-Gunners [1]. I loved to watch the BBC adaption as a kid. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Gunners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Gunners
- gadders 3y agoI was thinking more The Nightmare Man [1]. Scared the absolute piss out of me as a kid and I don't think it was even on that late: https://ayearinthecountry.co.uk/the-nightmare-man-part-1-cold-war-paranoia-and-the-island-as-restorative-balm-and-other-wanderings-42-52/ https://ayearinthecountry.co.uk/the-nightmare-man-part-1-col...
- nradov 3y agoThe F-35 has a lower mishap rate and higher availability rate than most other tactical aircraft.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoAn iPhone would be over a billion dollars if we only made 40.
- cypress66 3y agoThere's a lot of very low volume niche Chinese phones for reasonable prices. So it doesn't need to be so expensive. You could argue that an iPhone would cost over a billion because you need to develop iOS. But why would you do that instead of modding android for 1/100th of the cost, if you're only gonna make 40?
- lambersley 3y ago$1.2T to OPERATE the F-35 program, yikes! I would love to see the TCO figures on an F-35 (or not). US Military budget concepts have always blown my mind.
- yabones 3y agoNot to say $1.2T is nothing, but that's over the lifespan of the program. It's like if you paid for your car plus all the fuel, oil changes, spare parts, tires, car wash, toll roads, all up front. > $1.2 trillion to operate and maintain the fleet over more than 60 years.
- Workaccount2 3y agoHeadlines kick harder when you leave out divisors.
- mrguyorama 3y agoHoly cow, 60 years is the design life of the F35?! We will somehow still be operating these things in 2150!
- Invictus0 3y agoF16's 50th anniversary is next year. They're still being flown by many countries around the world, including the US, and will soon be fighting in Ukraine.
- RobotToaster 3y agoMilitary intelligence really is an oxymoron.
- tivert 3y agoMaybe it's another Cornfield Bomber (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornfield_Bomber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornfield_Bomber): > The "Cornfield Bomber" is the nickname given to a Convair F-106 Delta Dart, operated by the 71st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron of the United States Air Force. In 1970, during a training exercise, it made an unpiloted landing in a farmer's field in Montana, suffering only minor damage, after the pilot had ejected from the aircraft. The aircraft, recovered and repaired, was returned to service, and is currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Given it's a military plane (which IIRC, aren't required to have transponders or have them activated) and stealth. it seems understandable that it would be hard to find if it didn't crash immediately.
- AndyMcConachie 3y agoThe F-35 really is the most expensive joke in American military aviation history.
- m3kw9 3y agoLooks like it did not cause fire and after crash
- Simulacra 3y agoWhen I read this, the first thing that came to mind was the F-35 malfunctioning ejection seat issue that was due to counterfeit parts.
- aragonite 3y agoFrom this F-35 crash video last year at least it looks like they fixed the ejection problem at least! https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/pilot-ejects-from-f-35-at-fort-worth-joint-reserve-base/3149776/ https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/pilot-ejects-from-f-35-at-...
- frankjr 3y agoShould have put an AirTag on it. I'm kidding. Maybe.
- wongarsu 3y agoPlanes have transponders to make it easier to find them, though that's mostly for when they are in the air. The issue is that the military likes to turn them off.
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago[dupe] Earlier discussion over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37552740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37552740
- askiiart 3y agoContext: this comment is from a newer post whose comments were merged into this post.
- Slackwise 3y agoWow, the Warthunder forum arguments are getting way out of hand
- genpfault 3y ago> Warthunder forum arguments Context: [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Thunder#Documents_leaks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Thunder#Documents_leaks
- tester756 3y ago>In January 2023, Raytheon denied media reports that security clearance background checks for jobs at the defense contractor investigate whether applicants play War Thunder. wtf
- some_random 3y agoA redditor lied on the internet and a bunch of second and third rate media sites parroted it, this is why we can't have nice things https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/10kqto9/ahoy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/10kqto9/ahoy/
- swader999 3y agoThese things can carry nukes and we can lose them. Hmmmm.
- 1970-01-01 3y agoVery unlikely to be a broken arrow if they're asking for civilian assistance. Much more likely is it had blanks, went AWOL, and is lost in a lake.
- swader999 3y agoThis time.
- bunabhucan 3y agoNot yet: https://theaviationist.com/2021/10/06/f-35-b61-12/ https://theaviationist.com/2021/10/06/f-35-b61-12/ Best you could hope for would be a test bomb over Nevada but with no nuclear components.
- stuckinhell 3y agoThe USA really is in decline.
- cvccvroomvroom 3y agoAnd they want to replace A-10's, F/A-18's, and F-16's with this overpriced MIC boondoggle. It costs almost 2x/engine hour of a Viper, and the total program cost will exceed $2 trillion.
- pgraf 3y agoThey should have placed an Apple AirTag under the pilots seat… *sarcasm off*
- solardev 3y agoGuess the stealth is working.
- simonswords82 3y agoHand over as much intel to 4chan as possible and watch them find this thing in a matter of hours...
- motohagiography 3y agoCame here to say that. Thinking topographic maps of the region for higher probability impacts, wind direction maps, air quality data, last known trajectory, shodan cameras, cell tower signal interference blips, RF noise from surviving electronics or beacons. Not a lot to go on though.
- tsavo 3y agoAnd don't forget current fuel load to estimate radius of search area.
- hn8305823 3y agoAm I the only one shocked that it's stealth was effective enough that they couldn't track it even with a malfunctioning transponder?
- AustinDev 3y agoNot in the slightest bit.
- llm_nerd 3y agoBy reports this is one of the F35B variants, a VTOL capable jet. Like the V-22 Osprey, it is pushing mechanical complexity maybe too far and has been a program rife with troubles. Compared to the F35B, the normal variants have been essentially trouble free. Trying to make a whole mechanical system to redirect 40500lbs of thrust isn't super reliable. There is some sort of lesson there that applies to the software engineering realm. EDIT: Ooof, looks like there are some VTOL fanatics in the house. Who knew that unreliable military hardware was a fetish.
- AlbertCory 3y agoThe answer has been found! It crashed into a secret US Navy project: the Stealth Aircraft Carrier.
- GartzenDeHaes 3y agoIt's not uncommon for jets to fly for long distances after a pilot ejects. In one incident I responded to, the crew of an F4 ejected due to a fire, but the jet continued to fly over about half of Nevada until it eventually crashed near Tohnapah.
- SV_BubbleTime 3y agoThat F4 is shaped in a way that wants to stay in the air. The F35 is shaped in a way that only flys well with 10-40 thousand pounds of thrust. I am extremely skeptical a modern fighter jet wpuld coast and set it self down in a field.
- umeshunni 3y agoThis is a particularly interesting story: A Soviet MiG-23 flew all the way from Poland to Belgium without its pilot after they ejected from the jet shortly after takeoff back https://community.infiniteflight.com/t/the-ghost-mig-over-belgium/760068 https://community.infiniteflight.com/t/the-ghost-mig-over-be...
- mylittlebrain 3y agoMaybe the news reports are in error? They said autopilot was left on. The pilot survived. Surely they must know the settings for the course. It sounds like an episode in one of those spy thrillers.
- jononomo 3y agoAs another commenter has noted, this confirms that the stealth capabilities of this fighter jet are truly magnificent.
- wkat4242 3y agoDid they find it jet?
- 3seashells 3y agoSo.. Can one deduce jet vectors from disturbed clouds? Soldier movement from grass swinging in the wind. Can one visualize patterns not following a model?
- cooper_ganglia 3y agoThey should’ve put an AirTag on it.
- tehf0x 3y agoSo a similar thing happened near some friends' in France. A military jet crashed into the forest near their house, but the air force couldn't figure out where it had gone. Eventually a farmer noticed that a new pond had appeared on his land. The jet made enough of a crater when crashing that drained the nearby swamp and created a new pond deep enough to conceal the full fuselage, thus completely hiding the airplane. Once the farmer alerted the air force, they were able to crane the remains out of the newly formed pond and recover the key parts of hardware onboard. Had the farmer not noticed the change in landscape they might have never found it. https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2011/03/02/97001-20110302FILWWW00396-un-mirage-disparait-dans-la-creuse.php https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2011/03/02/97001-20110302...
- iancmceachern 3y agoJust like Luke's X-Wing on Dagobah!
- Scoundreller 3y agoI wonder if some of the "autopilot" functionality for military aircraft is to swan-dive into water/forest if everyone has already ejected. If it's going to crash (and can't autoland, which it probably shouldn't attempt even if it could if something ejection-worthy happened), might as well obliterate the thing in a safe place.
- ozim 3y agoWell usually it is pilots responsibility to try to aim it in safe direction as much as possible and only then eject. Basically like captain on the ship you don't eject but you are last one to leave the ship after you made what is possible to save others from harm (unless they are of course hostile forces). I think quite some pilots died this way because they were trying to the last second to save other lives. If plane is that much out of control that you cannot do much, adding some code to try to do something might make things actually worse from my perspective.
- andromaton 3y ago
- make3 3y ago"why isn't there a tracker on those planes", it feels to me like a tracker is the last thing you would want to put on a stealth fighter
- phendrenad2 3y agoIt's in Sasquatch country now, we'll find it 20 years from now in an area we already searched.
- avidphantasm 3y agoThey should be ashamed to make this request. How much money do we give them every year for “defense”? This is embarrassing. Fire everyone in this chain of command, all the way to the top. Oh, wait, Tuberville won’t let the Senate confirm any general officers. What a laughing stock we have become.
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- elfbargpt 3y agoSeeing some (probably very fake) tweets that the unmanned jet landed in Cuba. No reason to believe that's true, but I do wonder whether it would be remotely possible for someone to take the jet over. I imagine it has a lot of proprietary software inside
- toyg 3y agoTbh my conspiracy mind went somewhere like that. An F35 costs hundreds of millions, I'm sure there are plenty of state (and non-state) actors willing to pay, say, 50m for access to its hardware. If you're an enterprising arms dealer, you find a pilot willing to cooperate for 5-10m, ask him to point the plane in a particular direction and eject, and then wait for it to come to you. A soft crash would probably still give you enough to turn a decent profit.
- jjkeddo199 3y agoAbsolutely inappropriate to post something like this to Twitter before exhausting all other options (civilian airports, drone clubs, Space Force satellites) first. I feel like the Twitter account manager shared this out of desire to go viral, rather than securing the plane.
- pcurve 3y ago" we are focusing our attention north of JB Charleston, around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion" Sounds like it's in the water. It won't be easy to fish them out even if you find them. They probably determined security risk is very low.
- jmclnx 3y ago>“Now that I got that out of the way. How in the hell do you lose an F-35?” South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace said on social media. “How is there not a tracking device and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?” Sure lets put tracking devices in these stealth planes, will make it easy for anyone to find, even the Russians or Chinese. How dumb can a Congress Person get, they surprise me everyday.
- johnklos 3y agoHow dumb could a person be, suggesting that something be installed in an expensive airplane that couldn't possibly ever be turned off! Sigh.
- jmclnx 3y agoTurning it on would be very hard after a crash. Plus if you eject and you turn it on, the "other" people could trace it too. AFAIK, the purpose of F-35s are to be used in hostile areas, not only training. Also, ever hear of cracking" ? You think hackers in China could not crack that tracker given enough time ? Stealth usually means "unable to track" in case you are wondering :)
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- chankstein38 3y agoIt may be naive to ask this but... can I get a tail number? I'm not 100% sure these would have one I could look up on flightradar but a national post asking people to help find their plane would be way more useful with a little more info about the actual aircraft. We know it was "Sunday afternoon" over South Carolina somewhere but if we had some "last known location" info or something this might be solvable with some math estimates.
- btgeekboy 3y agoWith all due respect, I would hope that anything you could do with ADSB-out data is something that the US military has already tried.
- chankstein38 3y agoThat's my assumption as well but I'd have assumed that'd be the case with basically anything except on-site search parties (though I'd hope they could do that as well haha). I'm with you though!
- ortusdux 3y agoFrom the article - "The jet’s transponder, which usually helps locate the aircraft, was not working “for some reason that we haven’t yet determined,” said Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston. “So that’s why we put out the public request for help.”
- chankstein38 3y agoAh shoot, I missed that. Thank you!
- gl-prod 3y agoUS military: Yeah, right, we definitely tried that (Goes to check ADSB-out data)
- fnord77 3y agoI wonder how many people are going to lose their jobs over this
- bastardoperator 3y agoWhy not use the Find my F-35 app?
- blobbers 3y agoAnytime something like this happens, wouldn't they have seismic sensors that would detect a crash of this size? I can't see one of these things going down softly once pilot ejects unless it had some kind of drone mode, in which case god help us who knows where it is?
- ustad 3y agoReminds me of the movie The Pentagon Wars. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars
- fallingmeat 3y agoso they were not kidding about that low RCS!
- tclover 3y agowhat a clown state lmao
- jononomo 3y agoWhat might cause a pilot to need to eject from an airplane that is not in any distress? The pilot apparently had the time to put the airplane into an auto-pilot mode before ejecting. Why not just fly the plane back to base? I always thought pilots ejected when the plane was about to crash. Given that the plane costs $150 million, it seems like an extraordinarily expensive decision to make if the plane is not about to crash.
- skunkworker 3y agoI'm curious if the F35 had a luneburg lens installed or not. If it didn't and did not have an active transponder it would make things much more difficult.
- dumah 3y agoRelevant crashes into swamps: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Flight_592 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Flight_592 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_co...
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoA bunch more discussion on this dupe over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37555172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37555172
- Jimmc414 3y agoUnfortunately, no one had installed FindMyPlane
- RecycledEle 3y agoI need a tanker truck of jet fuel and a copy of the movie FireFox from 1982. I'll be sharing a table with Jeff at the next gun show. https://joshdance.medium.com/who-is-jeff-and-why-does-he-have-nuclear-weapons-f823de764c5e https://joshdance.medium.com/who-is-jeff-and-why-does-he-hav... /s
- Bud 3y ago[dead]
- andrewstuart 3y agoThey should put Apple Airtags in the F-35s. I have one on my cat and when he runs away he is not hard to find.
- laweijfmvo 3y agoStill needs someone with an iPhone to walk by and update its location
- mortureb 3y agoI’m so confused? Is it that they can’t make a gps tracker that works after a catastrophic crash?
- Alifatisk 3y agoSounds like a job for Rainbolt
- rmbyrro 3y ago> "How in the hell do you lose an F-35? ... How is there not a tracking device...?" -- South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace Considering it is a stealth jet, broadcasting its location through easily detectable radio waves would be a serious bug, not a feature, wouldn't it?
- andbberger 3y agostealth aircraft usually fly with radar retroreflectors deployed when not on combat missions so as to prevent adversaries from assessing their cross-section
- voxadam 3y agoHow Luneburg lens radar reflectors are used to make stealth aircraft visible on radar screens[0] [0] https://theaviationgeekclub.com/these-devices-make-stealth-aircraft-visible-on-radar-screens/ https://theaviationgeekclub.com/these-devices-make-stealth-a...
- httpz 3y agoWait.. does this mean an enemy fighter jet with F-35 level of stealth capabilities can penetrate the US mainland without being detected? I thought US had the air defense system that can defend against some level stealth aircrafts. Is that not the case?
- sethhochberg 3y agoIf I'd lost an aircraft with a bunch of classified stealth features, and I perhaps also had air defense systems with a bunch of classified stealth countermeasures, I might be inclined to ask the locals if they've seen the thing in the swamp out back before I did anything that might reveal anything about the limitations of that stealth tech or abilities of the system that could track it.
- azalemeth 3y agoIn addition to the other comments, it's worth pointing out that (a) stealth aircraft deliberately use radar corner reflectors and other methods to increase their radar signature, reserving "stealthing up" for missions that require it; (b) almost all forms of identifying and locating an aircraft in flight besides radar require it to be transmitting RF (eg ads!) yet the conditions likely to lead to ejection likely lead to a reduction in the ability to do this; and (c) search and rescue in deep water is really really hard as water strongly absorbs and scatters most forms of radiation likely to be used .
- jjk166 3y agoThat depends on what you mean by detected. Stealth technology shrinks radar signature, meaning all else being equal, a radar pointed at a stealth aircraft will return a substantially weaker signal than for a non-stealth aircraft, particularly at certain wavelengths it's optimized to be stealthy in. Thus a system of radars that might have no gaps a non-stealth aircraft could fly through might have gaps where it couldn't detect a stealth aircraft, or radars with the resolution to accurately locate the aircraft might not be able to distinguish it from background noise. Generally very large, long wavelength radars can detect that a stealth aircraft is present, but can't accurately determine location. The only time an air defense system has ever shot down a stealth aircraft was during the 90s when a Yugoslavian force shot down an F-117, but they relied on the fact that the plane was flying along a known flight route. Under ideal circumstances defense against stealth is theoretically possible, but a system that can reliably defend against stealth under arbitrary conditions is at best impractical. Now that's the case for a radar deliberately set up to try and detect military aircraft flying through some area. The US isn't particularly expecting any foreign nation to fly a small sortie over North Carolina any time soon. Radar coverage in the US is limited; airports have radars that can detect very non-stealthy civilian aircraft a few dozen miles away, and there are many radars at military bases and weather stations and such scattered around, but air traffic monitoring relies heavily on transponder signals for most of the air space. While a foreign adversary probably shouldn't count on the ability to overfly the US completely undetected, we almost certainly would not be able to track it along its flight path. Of course the US does not rely on detecting foreign aircraft to protect against an attack on the mainland, but instead practices a strategy of deterrence.
- readthenotes1 3y agoFunniest headline I read about this: "F-35 carrying Epstein client list goes missing" from a news satire site
- msgilligan 3y agoFound it: https://babylonbee.com/news/bad-luck-military-announces-lost-f-35-was-carrying-epstein-client-list/ https://babylonbee.com/news/bad-luck-military-announces-lost...
- monlockandkey 3y agoHave fun searching for a stealth fighter...
- omginternets 3y agoFinders keepers!
- slackfan 3y agoToo stealthy.
- porknubbins 3y agoI wonder why they don’t have a human on the ground ready to fly it like a drone via sattelite as soon as the pilot is no longer capable of flying. Sure sattelite is probably way too slow to really maneuver a jet but seems better than crashing it.
- 0x38B 3y agoWorth mentioning that the jet was on autopilot: > But here's the kicker: the DoD is saying the F-35B was put on autopilot prior to the ejection.
- lobocinza 3y agoSo is this the "invisible" F-35 Trump used to talk about?
- MarcScott 3y agoThey found it Debris found from F-35 jet in South Carolina after US pilot ejected
- a5d8a401 3y ago2034?
- unnouinceput 3y agoQuote: "The jet’s transponder, which usually helps locate the aircraft, was not working “for some reason that we haven’t yet determined,” said Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston. That's such a convenient event, isn't it? I mean, this screams of a middle manager screw-up and what is the best way to cover your financial losses (read embezzlement) other than staging a bank robbery, a fire or losing a jet? Yeah, that's my 2 cents conspiracy theory.
- lstamour 3y agoIt has been found: https://x.com/TeamCharleston/status/1703898175138894214?s=20 https://x.com/TeamCharleston/status/1703898175138894214?s=20
- al_be_back 3y agoso the 'Stealthy' feature works then. handy if you eject over non-friendly territory, at least it would buy some time.
- janandonly 3y agoDidn't anybody think to stick an AirTag or such similar gadget onto a $150 million plane?
- whearyou 3y agoThis would be the mother of all heists if it was one - probably to the serious detriment of the western world
- ConcernedCoder 3y agoanyone have any solutions / ideas -- how would you go about locating the lost F-35 if you were so inclined?
- chakintosh 3y agoSomething tells me the pilot did something stupid (read Ejected by mistake) and his wingman is covering for him (who by the way could have followed the jet and reported where it crashed). There is no reason for him not be able to fly what is arguably the most sophisticated jet on the planet in limp mode at least.
- brightball 3y agoDebris was found. https://wpde.com/news/local/missing-f-35b-jet-search-lake-city-florence-county-joint-base-charleston-north-charleston-aircraft-marine-corps-beaufort-lake-moultrie-marion-south-carolina https://wpde.com/news/local/missing-f-35b-jet-search-lake-ci...
- hkt 3y agoThat's what you get for investing in stealth tech!
- dredmorbius 3y agoA debris field has been found: The debris field is approximately two hours northeast of Joint Base Charleston. JB Charleston, which led the search, “is transferring incident command to the USMC this evening, as they begin the recovery process,” the Marine Corps said in a news release. Members of the community were cautioned to avoid the area so the recovery team can secure the debris field and begin the recovery process. <https://lite.cnn.com/2023/09/17/us/south-carolina-fighter-jet-pilot-ejects/index.html https://lite.cnn.com/2023/09/17/us/south-carolina-fighter-je...>
- giarc 3y agoTwo hours by car, or two hours by F-35 jet? Quite a big difference.
- dredmorbius 3y agoI demand reasonable units of length: bananas, giraffes, or smoots. Though I suspect information is being kept deliberately vague Because Reasons.
- interestica 3y agoThe repeated referral to "debris field" is interesting. As if it's saying "nothing to see here." Or maybe it's really just a field of debris.
- wackycat 3y agoThe fact they waste taxpayer money on the military only for them to admit that they don't even have the tech to track these 100 million dollar planes is so disheartening. You know that the giant cost of these planes is just lining military contractors' pockets.
- dolmen 3y agoDebris found: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/19/debris-of-us-f-35-fighter-jet-found-a-day-after-pilot-ejects-from-warplane https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/19/debris-of-us-f-35-f...
- Mobil1 3y agoFalse Flag F-35 Crash Used to Pursue Case for AI Control September 20, 2023 New evidence has emerged suggesting that the recent F-35 jet crash was not an accident, but a false flag event orchestrated by powerful interests to pursue a case for greater control over artificial intelligence (AI). The crash occurred on September 15, 2023, during a routine training exercise. The pilot was able to eject safely, but the jet itself was completely destroyed. However, witnesses to the crash report seeing no debris field, and no hero pilot has been presented to the public. This has led some to believe that the crash was staged in order to justify a crackdown on AI development. AI is rapidly becoming more powerful and capable, and some fear that it could eventually pose a threat to humanity. This crash could be used as a pretext to impose new restrictions on AI research and development. There is also evidence to suggest that the crash was used to test new AI technologies. Some experts believe that the pilot may have been replaced by an AI system, and that the crash was used to assess the system's ability to handle a real-world emergency. The US government has denied any wrongdoing, but the lack of transparency surrounding the crash has only fueled speculation. The public deserves to know the truth about what happened, and why the government is so eager to cover it up. Why AI Control? Those who believe that the F-35 crash was a false flag event argue that the powerful interests behind it are seeking to control AI in order to maintain their own power. AI has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of society, and those who control AI will have a significant advantage over others. One specific concern is that AI could be used to develop autonomous weapons systems that could kill without human intervention. This would give those who control AI a terrifying amount of power. Another concern is that AI could be used to manipulate people on a mass scale. This could be done through social media, advertising, or even through the development of AI-powered propaganda tools. Those who are concerned about AI control argue that we need to be very careful about how we develop and deploy AI technologies. We need to make sure that AI is used for good, and not for evil. Conclusion The evidence suggests that the recent F-35 jet crash was not an accident, but a false flag event orchestrated by powerful interests to pursue a case for greater control over artificial intelligence (AI). This is a very serious concern, and the public deserves to know the truth about what happened. We need to be very careful about how we develop and deploy AI technologies, and make sure that AI is used for good, and not for evil.