With a fiery disaster in a California field, the F-35 stealth fighter suffers another major crash

Business Insider

4 days ago

A US Navy F-35 fighter jet crashed in California on Thursday, marking another accident for the stealth fighter jet, the second this year.
Naval Air Station Lemoore said in a statement on Wednesday that an F-35C "went down" not far from the central California base at 6:30 p.m. local time. "We can confirm the pilot successfully ejected and is safe. There are no additional affected personnel," it said.
The Fresno County Sheriff's Office shared video footage showing a fiery wreck, with a thick plume of black smoke rising from a cotton field just north of the base.
Officials said that emergency first responders found the pilot with his parachute in a nearby field. He was taken to a hospital and is expected to be okay, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
It's unclear why the aircraft crashed and whether it was a mechanical failure or pilot error. NAS Lemoore did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for additional information. The sheriff's office said the military is investigating the incident.
The F-35C is the Navy's variant of the stealth fighter and is capable of carrier-based takeoffs and landings. The Air Force operates the F-35A variant, which does conventional takeoff and landing, while the Marines fly the F-35B, a short takeoff and vertical landing variant that was built for short runways, amphibious assault ships, and certain carriers.
A look at the F-35's crash history
This week's crash marks another major accident for the Lockheed Martin -produced F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, the US military's second fifth-generation aircraft and the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program. This plane is widely regarded as a cornerstone of US airpower.
Over 1,100 F-35s have been delivered to the US and its allies since the first fighter rolled off the factory floor nearly 20 years ago. With hundreds of thousands of flight hours logged, the handful of crashes the jet has seen yields a relatively low incident rate. Nonetheless, the incidents are noteworthy.
Here are some of the bigger ones in the jet's history:
The first F-35 crash occurred in South Carolina in 2018. The pilot, a Marine flying the B variant, ejected safely after the plane suffered a mechanical issue.
In 2019, a Japanese F-35A crashed into the Pacific Ocean after the pilot lost spatial awareness. His remains were recovered later, but the jet was never fully recovered, only some debris.
The US saw two F-35 crashes in the next year. An F-35A crashed while landing at Florida's Eglin Air Force Base. The pilot ejected and survived. Pilot fatigue, among other issues, was blamed for the crash. Later in the year, an F-35B crashed after hitting a tanker aircraft during midair refueling. The pilot ejected and was injured.
In 2021, a pilot operating a British F-35B off the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was forced to bail out of the cockpit during flight operations in the Mediterranean Sea. The incident was caused by an engine-blanking plug in the intake.
Several F-35s crashed the following year in 2022. An F-35C suffered a ramp strike while landing on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, leaving several sailors hurt. Months later, an F-35A crashed at Utah's Hill Air Force Base. And a few weeks after that, an F-35B crashed at Texas' Reserve Base Fort Worth. In all three cases, the pilots ejected safely.
In 2023, an F-35B crashed in South Carolina during a training mishap. The pilot ejected, and the plane continued flying on autopilot. The wreckage was found the following day.
In 2024, an F-35B test jet crashed in New Mexico, seriously injuring the pilot. And earlier this year, an F-35A crashed at Alaska's Eielson Air Force base; the pilot ejected, and the plane then fell out of the sky and exploded.
The F-35 has faced criticism throughout its development for technological integration issues, rising costs, and readiness and sustainability problems, some of which persist today.
Critics in President Donald Trump's orbit, like Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk or Laura Loomer, have taken swings at the F-35, arguing that it offers less than drones do and that the program has been a real failure for the military. Others, including lawmakers in Congress, have raised concerns over delays with the TR-3 and Block IV upgrades. Air Force officials have cited these concerns in decisions to reduce F-35 buys in budget proposals.
The jet, however, offers a range of high-end capabilities beyond those of any other nation's fifth-gen aircraft, and Trump has indicated he is willing to continue supporting the program and upgrades to the plane. The F-35 serves as an advanced airpower capability while work on a new sixth-generation fighter gets underway.