Lost: One US Marine F-35B Lightning II fighter jet. Last seen wandering on autopilot near Charleston, South Carolina. Steel gray in color. Loves high altitude but will approach runways and hangars. Will go to ground if left alone too long. Does not swim well and may have drowned in a nearby lake. Owner desperate for return.
I can only laugh at this story, although it’s costing US taxpayers somewhere between $80 million and you-name-it, depending on the source. How do you lose something this big, this noisy, this valuable? Do they not put trackers on these things? Air Tags? Transponders? Radar back at the base? I’m glad the pilot who ejected is going to be okay, but explaining this “mishap” should be interesting.
I know it’s a stealth jet, but this is ridiculous. Google can find my phone, my watch, my computer, my thermostat, my lamps, me. My son’s car tells him where he is and shows him on a map. I can tell you where each of my family members is at any time. Even my dog wears a GPS tracker.
Okay, so maybe it was at night and nobody saw the errant jet. But wouldn’t somebody have heard it? Low flying? Crashing? Maybe it went into a lake and sank?
At the very least, the Marines should/would know how much fuel it had on board and could judge how far it could fly, especially since it was left on autopilot. Or maybe not. After all, they did manage to lose it.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/18/missing-f-35b-lighting-ii-fighter-jet-us-military-help-marine-corps-pilot-ejects
Takes the bloody cake !!
It certainly does. The US military doesn’t just “lose” a plane like this. The Guardian comes through again. I didn’t see another source quoting the “brilliant” Donald Trump. “Invisible” my ass.
This story, as presented, ain’t gonna fly. The truth is out there, in the coastal southeast somewhere, but I doubt if I will be around to hear it.
It occurred to me after I wrote this that Charleston is on the coast. D’oh. Point that puppy to the east and no one will ever find it. Or perhaps the wrong people … perhaps waiting out there for it.
Crossed my mind too.
such an odd story, more to it for sure
More to it than we may ever hear. They found the plane this evening, near one of the lakes that had been mentioned. Still no explanation about how they lost track of it … and I don’t expect we’ll hear one.
ah, the mystery grows
I can just imagine the conversation between the pilot and his C.O. “You lost what? You in a heap o’ trouble, boy.” So, now at least he knows what that lever-thingy does.
Oh yes. It reminded me of the line in “The Hunt for Red October,” something like “Oh Andrei, you’ve lost another submarine?”
I like your observation that Google can find us anywhere. Very funny and strange.
Well, in my house it’s because I set things up that way. I love what the Google/wifi/internet sphere can do for me, even though in some quarters they’re saying Google is too big, too monopolistic, and they want to put a stop to it. If it’s broken up, I think it will not serve us as well.
The fact that the plane couldn’t be found for a while was probably a testament to its stealth capabilities. It was not meant to be tracked and found.