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F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

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Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#21
post #7

A 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.

This 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-landi...

A 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-...

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#22
post #11

The 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-ma...

It's more affordable than I thought, I expected one more zero on the price tag...

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#23
post #3

Interesting. 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.

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.

> 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.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#25
post #7

A 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.

This 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-landi...

FTA: "The Second World War II"...

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#29
post #24

Why don't they fly with transponders on during training, precisely for this reason?

It 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.”

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