Maintenance, repair details of grounded UK F-35B fighter jet in Kerala to be kept under wraps
Though the United Kingdom (UK) authorities have decided to repair the grounded F-35B fighter jet of the UK Royal Air Force at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport in Kerala, all the details regarding the repair and maintenance of the fighter jet will be kept a closely guarded secret.
Sources close to the UK government confirmed that the UK authorities would not provide details on repair and maintenance matters or on private discussions with the Government of India.
However, they exuded confidence that the fighter jet would be brought back to the active service of the Royal Air Force once the maintenance and repair of the aircraft are completed in Kerala along with the mandatory safety checks.
Meanwhile, the details of the flight that issued a distress signal on the night of June 14 off the coast of Thiruvananthapuram, as per the flight radar data, were removed from the site.
A flight tracking site earlier showed that an aircraft issued an emergency transponder code SQUAWK 7700 for a few seconds (43 seconds) around 9 p.m. off the coast of Thiruvananthapuram, indicating that the aircraft was in distress and required priority handling from air traffic control at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. This data has now disappeared from the site. Defence sources in India had been maintaining that the aircraft was reportedly part of a joint naval drill conducted by the Indian Navy and the United Kingdom's Carrier Strike Group (UK CSG25) in the western Arabian Sea on the first of June.
Lack of clarity
Meanwhile, the British High Commission spokesperson said the aircraft is awaiting repairs at the Thiruvananthapuram airport after developing an engineering issue. The aircraft will be moved to the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul facility at the airport once UK engineering teams arrive with specialist equipment. However, there is still no clarity on when the expert team will arrive and why there has been an inordinate delay.
Similarly, there was no response to specific questions such whether the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales deployed in the Indo-Pacific region, from where the aircraft took off, would stay there until the engineering issues were fixed.
The F-35B, a multi-role combat aircraft, is billed as the most advanced and connected fighter jet in the world, designed for short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL), is currently grounded at the airport after the initial attempt by the crew to fix the engineering issues failed to achieve results.
According to an official release of UK authorities, the aircraft made an emergency landing on June 14 following adverse weather conditions in the sea.
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