Daunting Salvage Task Awaits Japanese F-35 Investigators Baffled by Crash

A Japan Air Self-Defense Force's F-35A stealth fighter jet, which Kyodo says is the same plane that crashed during an exercise on April 9, 2019, is seen at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Komaki Minami factory in Toyoyama, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, in June 2017. Kyodo/Reuters

TOKYO—Two days after one of Japan’s F-35 stealth fighters plunged into the Pacific and no closer to finding out why it happened, investigators face a daunting task to recover what remains of the highly classified jet from the ocean depths.

Air Self Defense Force (ASDF) investigators have found small sections of the F-35’s wing floating in the sea which suggests the advanced aircraft hit the water, but not why it disappeared from radar screens without warning.