Crashed Japanese F-35 wreckage found in Pacific; pilot missing

Tokyo, April 10 

Search and rescue teams found wreckage from a crashed Japanese F-35 stealth fighter in the Pacific Ocean close to northern Japan, as efforts to find the missing pilot continued, authorities said on Wednesday.

The aircraft, less than one-year-old, was the first F-35 to be assembled in Japan and was aloft for only 28 minutes on Tuesday before contact was lost, a defence official said. The plane had logged a total of 280 hours in the air since its first flight, he added.

It is only the second F-35 to crash in the two-decades it has been flying and could reignite concern about the F-35 having only one engine.The incident comes as Lockheed Martin, the F-35 manufacturer, competes for orders in Finland and Switzerland against the twin-engined Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing F/A-18E/F jet.

The advanced, single-seat jet was flying in good weather about 135 km (84 miles) east of the Misawa air base in Aomori Prefecture at about 7.27pm on Tuesday when it disappeared from radar, the Air Self Defence Force said.

“We recovered the wreckage and determined it was from the F-35,” a spokesman for the Air Self Defence Force (ASDF) said, adding that the pilot of the aircraft was still missing. — Reuters

Second F-35 to crash

It is only the second F-35 to crash in  the two-decades it has been flying and canreignite concern about the F-35 having only one engine. The incident comes as Lockheed Martin, the F-35 manufacturer, competes for orders in Finland and Switzerland