An Air Force pilot in January spent almost an hour in a conference call with Lockheed Martin engineers while airborne in an attempt to solve mechanical problems affecting his F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter before finally ejecting.
The pilot sustained minor injuries, but the nearly $200 million multi-role fighter jet was destroyed in the crash, according to an Air Force accident report released this week.
The aircraft crashed Jan. 28 during a training mission at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. According to the accident report, the nose landing gear failed to properly retract after takeoff because of ice that had formed in the hydraulic fluid lines.
The pilot circled the airfield for nearly an hour while Air Force officials in the control tower set up a call with the aircraft’s manufacturer. He attempted multiple “touch and go” landings in an attempt to remedy the mechanical problems. However, that allowed ice to continue forming inside the aircraft, causing the left and right main landing gears to freeze up, according to the accident report.
As they attempted to troubleshoot the mechanical mishap, the fighter jet’s sensors then mistakenly determined that it was on the ground.
“Because it was actually airborne, [the F-35] was uncontrollable. The pilot successfully ejected, and emergency responders were on the scene within a minute,” according to the accident report.
Air Force investigators determined that the cause of the crash was hydraulic fluid contaminated by water that froze in the landing gear struts.
“Substantially contributing to the loss of the aircraft was a lack of adherence to proper maintenance procedures for servicing the hydraulic system, according to the report.
