It had been missing since its pilot ejected Sunday afternoon. But the F-35 stealth fighter jet, frantically sought by the US military, was found Monday afternoon. Its debris at least. The military, “in close coordination with local authorities, discovered a debris field in Williamsburg County”, South Carolina, the Joint Base Charleston military base explained on X (ex-Twitter).
The discovery of this cutting-edge military device – some $80 million each – puts an end to the all-out search carried out by the American authorities since Sunday afternoon. They had called on residents of the region to help them locate the precious wreck, causing a lot of mockery on the Internet.
“How the hell do you lose an F-35?” »
If its pilot was able to eject “safely”, we still do not know why he resorted to this extreme option, normally synonymous with imminent danger. And the expensive F-35B Lightning II, flagship of American naval aviation, remained untraceable for an entire day. The appeal of the American military, in the hope of obtaining help from the population, provoked a myriad of reactions.
“We knew that the F-35 was stealthy, but this is ridiculous,” said a Republican representative from South Carolina, Nancy Mace, on X. “How the hell do you lose an F-35?” How is it possible that there is no monitoring system and that the population is asked… imagine what? To find a plane and hand it over to the authorities? she added.
Transponder out of service
One of the spokespersons for the Charleston base explained to Washington Post that the device did have a transponder – a transmitter receiver allowing it to be located – but that it was not working “for a reason that we have not yet determined”. “This is why we have launched a public appeal for help,” continued the spokesperson, Jeremy Huggins.
The authorities have so far limited themselves to repeating that an investigation was underway into the “incident”. The debris was discovered “two hours northeast of Joint Base Charleston,” they said in a statement. “We cannot provide additional details, in order to preserve the integrity of the investigative process,” the base said.
Wanted poster and Zelensky all smiles
Mockingly, Internet users shared fake wanted posters photoshopped on trees: “F-35 missing. $500 reward.” And because the United States has provided billions of dollars in military aid to Kiev, many have published a photo – also manipulated – of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky all smiles, posing in front of a fighter plane. “Did you guys look at Ukraine? », pretended to ask an Internet user.
President Zelensky is insistently asking the West for combat planes to fight against the Russian invasion. Opponents of Democratic President Joe Biden also took the opportunity to attack his government.
The “zombie” mode of the plane
“Only under the Biden administration can the US military lose an $80 million F-35 in the air,” squeaked conservative commentator Benny Johnson in a post on X.
A popular theory on social media was that the plane went into “zombie” mode, meaning it flew on autopilot. In 1989, a Soviet MIG-23 leaving Poland crashed near Kortrijk, Belgium, after traveling more than 900 km without a pilot – his own had also ejected from the aircraft.