WASHINGTON (Transatlantic Today) – A stealth fighter that landed on a US Navy navy ship last month explodes into flames as it impacts the big warship’s flight deck, according to a video uploaded on social media during the weekend.
On a video monitor aboard the USS Carl Vinson, which was on exercises in the South China Sea while the accident happened on Jan 24, the F-35C, the Navy’s latest fighter, can be seen.
The video shows two different viewpoints of the incident, both of which show the jet approaching the aircraft carrier. In one close-up shot, the plane crashes into the deck, erupts into flames, and spins full-frame in front of the camera. The blazing disaster is captured in the next point of view as it slowly moves along the deck before slamming into the ocean.
Crew members can be heard saying “Wave off, wave off” as the $100 million fighter approaches the ship. “Wave off, wave off” is the slang for a jet that aborts a landing attempt, accelerates, and circles back to try again. However, the pilot’s warning arrives too late to prevent the accident.
On its descent to the carrier, the F-35 appeared to have control issues, according to Peter Layton, a former Royal Australian Air Force officer currently at the Griffith Asia Institute.
He believes the aircraft was not equipped with an autonomous landing system, which uses computerised controls to limit the number of times the pilot must make modifications to safely land the plane on the deck.
The F-35 C’s first operational deployment was aboard the USS Vinson, which only began service in 2019. The F-35A stealth fighter for the US Air Force and the F-35B stealth fighter for the US Marine Corps were both deployed earlier this year.
The video’s validity was confirmed by the US Navy to CNN, however, the cause of the accident has yet to be revealed.
The F-35C features some of the Navy’s most sophisticated technology, according to experts, and America would really want to keep it out of the hands of Beijing.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, stated that it was aware that a US Navy stealth fighter had crashed in the South China Sea, but that it “had no interest in their plane.”
