Missing F-35

Given the pilot's age he was either an IP or qualifying on the F-35, but in either case he is an experienced pilot.

Ejected pilot of F-35 that went missing told 911 dispatcher he didn't know where fighter jet was
Your link didn't work for me. Saw this one post of the 911 call:

Aside: I understand 911 dispatchers aren't military or aircraft experts In any way but, holy cow, she does not understand at all what's being told to her.
 
Your link didn't work for me. Saw this one post of the 911 call:

Aside: I understand 911 dispatchers aren't military or aircraft experts In any way but, holy cow, she does not understand at all what's being told to her.

I think the poor dispatcher thought she was getting pranked at first. Or had a mentally unstable person showing up at a house claiming to be a pilot.

Homeowner: Hello, 911? I have a pilot that fell from the sky into my backyard.
911: Okay sir. Are you with the patient?
Pilot: It was 2,000ft, I fell 2,000ft.
911: Okay, hold one moment. *Thinking to herself..."These kids are getting more brazen in their prank stories"*

That's the cartoon picture in my head.
 
As a non-aviator book reader who had the opportunity to speak with pilots and maintainers until 2021: An S Tier plane when it works, but equipped with a trash-ass engine the DoD decided to keep in lieu of other options. The ALIS (I hope the follow-on system is better, but I lack that insight) failed the community. I know for an absolute fact Lockheed is horrible to work with, even down to ground-based training systems.

The -35 suffers from some things (given my qualifications above)
- Concurrency where a system moves through development and into procurement at the same time, which makes it harder to fix problems discovered in testing
- Engines (see above)
- "Too big to fail"
- Trying to make a "joint" anything with an aircraft. This has failed horribly going back to the 60's. The service's various requirements make this almost impossible
- An incremental rollout where the gov't accepts aircraft with known handicaps where it may or may not address those consideration (first bullet)
- Cost overruns which you could see coming from miles away, but we shrugged those off

The F-35 is an AMAZING aircraft managed by people who could fuck up a Girl Scout cookie desk at your local grocery store.

On the plus side, everyone met their DEI/ Consideration for Others/ Whateverthefuckelse CBT training for the year. I know this because an auto-generated email appeared in my Inbox reminding me I have 30 days to complete...whatever my deficiencies.

The F-35 is actually great, but held back by you know what and who.
 
As a non-aviator book reader who had the opportunity to speak with pilots and maintainers until 2021: An S Tier plane when it works, but equipped with a trash-ass engine the DoD decided to keep in lieu of other options. The ALIS (I hope the follow-on system is better, but I lack that insight) failed the community. I know for an absolute fact Lockheed is horrible to work with, even down to ground-based training systems.

The -35 suffers from some things (given my qualifications above)
- Concurrency where a system moves through development and into procurement at the same time, which makes it harder to fix problems discovered in testing
- Engines (see above)
- "Too big to fail"
- Trying to make a "joint" anything with an aircraft. This has failed horribly going back to the 60's. The service's various requirements make this almost impossible
- An incremental rollout where the gov't accepts aircraft with known handicaps where it may or may not address those consideration (first bullet)
- Cost overruns which you could see coming from miles away, but we shrugged those off

The F-35 is an AMAZING aircraft managed by people who could fuck up a Girl Scout cookie desk at your local grocery store.

On the plus side, everyone met their DEI/ Consideration for Others/ Whateverthefuckelse CBT training for the year. I know this because an auto-generated email appeared in my Inbox reminding me I have 30 days to complete...whatever my deficiencies.

The F-35 is actually great, but held back by you know what and who.
Friends son is an F-15 pilot who just transitioned into the F-35. He says the current bird is eye watering.
As far as loses go, Kunsan lost 3 F-16's in 9 months, how many folks demanding the F-16 get scrapped?
 
Just lost another F-35 off Runway 21 at ABQ. No word on condition of the pilot, but he did get out; being transported to the hospital.

You can hardly find a consistent story about this.

It was a B model (we know this at least)... being ferried to Edwards for testing or California and delivery to the Marines. The pilot was Air Force or a Lockheed employee, or a gov civilian or maybe a non-Lockheed contractor. The pilot is either in serious but stable condition or was taken to a hospital for observation.

Wild.
 
You can hardly find a consistent story about this.

It was a B model (we know this at least)... being ferried to Edwards for testing or California and delivery to the Marines. The pilot was Air Force or a Lockheed employee, or a gov civilian or maybe a non-Lockheed contractor. The pilot is either in serious but stable condition or was taken to a hospital for observation.

Wild.
Good source says it was headed to Edwards for software testing.
TR3.5
Big loss for the DoD as the software package has to be certified before deliveries can resume.
 
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