A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) says the agency will investigate the disappearance of an F-35 stealth fighter jet in South Carolina, which prompted a lengthy search for the aircraft before its wreckage was located on the night of Sept. 18.
When asked by an MSNBC anchor on Sept. 19 how the plane disappeared, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded, “That will be something that they will investigate.”
“Believe me, after every aviation mishap, the Pentagon does what the Pentagon does; they will investigate it to try to get the answers on what happened,” he said, adding that the DOD will be “transparent” after the probe is completed. “And they‘ll ... look at their own search and recovery efforts of the aircraft itself to see whether that was conducted in all the appropriate ways. They’ll investigate this.”
The fighter jet, which is worth about $80 million, disappeared on Sept. 17 after a pilot ejected from the aircraft near a South Carolina joint base, officials said. At one point, the Joint Base Charleston asked the public for help in locating the stealth fighter jet.
Debris from the plane crash was located about two hours north of where the pilot ejected, authorities said. It isn’t clear why it took so long to locate the F-35.
Cpl. Christian Cortez, a Marine with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, told The Associated Press that details of what prompted the pilot to eject from the aircraft were under investigation.
The aircraft was located in a rural part of Williamsburg County, officials wrote on social media. Residents were asked to avoid the crash site as a military team worked to secure it.
“We are transferring incident command to the USMC this evening, as they begin the recovery process,” the joint base wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The mishap is currently under investigation, and we are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative process,” the U.S. Marine Corps also said in a statement on Sept. 18.
Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston, told media outlets on Sept. 18 that the F-35 was left on autopilot when the pilot ejected, adding that officials suspected that the plane could have still been airborne after the incident.
“This stand down is being taken to ensure the service is maintaining operational standardization of combat-ready aircraft with well-prepared pilots and crews,” the Marines stated in a release. “During the safety stand down, aviation commanders will lead discussions with their Marines focusing on the fundamentals of safe flight operations, ground safety, maintenance and flight procedures, and maintaining combat readiness.”
The Marine Corps didn’t provide details, but there were two aviation-related incidents last month. A pilot died on Aug. 24 when a Marine Corps F-18 jet crashed near San Diego. And a Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey crashed during a training exercise in Australia, leaving three U.S. Marines dead and five others injured, according to officials. The causes of both crashes are under investigation.
The latest incident drew criticism from some lawmakers, who questioned how the U.S. military could lose an $80 million fighter jet.
