How do you LOSE a MILITARY JET?

Question

Recently, a US Marine F-35 jet worth US$100 million went missing after the pilot ejected during an incident. The plane continued flying on auto-pilot. The plane's transponder was not working and the plane is stealth, so the Marines couldn't find it. They asked the public for help and have finally located its debris.

Officials find debris from F-35 fighter jet that crashed in South Carolina after pilot ejected

What do you think? How do you lose a military jet?

BCA6010 · Accepted Answer

The USMC screwed up on this one big time, but won't admit it because it makes them look bad, and that violates rule #1 of the corps. There are multiple, likely points of failure on this one that all point toward pilot and/or ground crew error.

They know exactly what happened. That's why the planes had only a two-day stand down rather than "until the issue is resolved" that would normally happen if some unknown, major malfunction occured.

ChiTown33 · Accepted Answer

Why does this question remind me of the movie "broken arrow". When they refer to a lost nuclear warhead as a "broken arrow". And a guy says, "I don't know which is more concerning. That you lost a nuclear warhead or that it happens frequently enough that you guys have a name for it".😂

Hawkes_Lady · Accepted Answer

Our tax dollars working at their finest. What more did you expect from the US government?

Apple1996 · Accepted Answer

The military loses everything. This isn't even surprising 😒

Static_In_The_Attic · Answer

There are some things that we will never know & this was one of them & if the jet continued to fly on autopilot why eject in the first place?

Probably some social media cellphone junkie making another TikTok video.

100 million dollar OOPS!

strateguy632 · Answer

they knew it got lost, not like missing misplaced, carelessly but radar can't see stealth type jets. it shows how good it hides and this deters china. we could actually DO the fiction in clancy novel bear dragon.

Jaximus-Lion · Answer

I wouldn't worry avout it. You are living in a country where the government put trillions of dollars on such military toys, they will replace it with another. The pilot survived and that's all what counts

Drewtate · Answer

You answered your own question. How do you find a stealth jet that was on auto pilot and lost its transponder that then crashed.

BoopBoopBeep · Answer

Usually I check in the laundry and under the couch... past that I just give up.

ProbablyClueless · Answer

Simple: you start flying it somewhere and then you return to the Yahtzee game you paused on your phone. Dude, you would be amazed the amount of material that goes missing; countries are big things.

exitseven · Answer

I hate to think haow much stuff "goes missing: from the military.

Fireguy17 · Answer

There might be some paperwork involved with this. It sounds pretty easy to do. Just put it in stealth mode. Probably just had to flip a switch or check a box on the computer.

abc3643 · Answer

The same way you lose a Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

AimeeKyle · Answer

You would think that we have a secret decoder ring that could help us find it / track it when bad things happen or the wrong people get their hands on one…..

love_conquers_lust · Answer

It’s testament to just how remarkable of a piece of engineering the F-35 is. That is a high speed stealth jet that can dog fight.

Gent207-2 · Answer

The military lost quite a few nuclear warhead, so I'm not surprised

SPIRIT208 · Answer

Our toys are a little too good at doing what they do

normalice · Answer

They found it. But in general it's hard to comprehend how big the country is. If you were to randomly drop an entire skyscraper onto the US, it could be months before you find it without some sort of computer guided assistance.

purplepoppy · Answer

I heard it was shot down by a UFO

Surely · Answer

If we only knew!  Understand there is plenty of things thrown overboard. So it doesn’t need to be reinventoried.

tfan1 · Answer

Feels like Firefox only the plane wasn’t stolen out of the hangar.

driven159 · Answer

what happen to the transmitter that all planes put out unless it was on a secret flight. something sounds fishy.

gorydetails · Answer

A government who loses a jet doesn't get to dictate to me which guns I own.

msc545 · Answer

You eject from it to save your life and leave it on autopilot...

CatVader · Answer

Just have enough corrupt politicians, not only will equipment disappear but so will everything dear.

Charliefretz329 · Answer

No way they “lost” it. Too mush tracking technology on them.

DryGermanGuy · Answer

"Tell me this isn't a government operation."  - FD Gene Kranz, Apollo 13

rigmarole · Answer

Give it to Biden. He'll sell it to Ukraine, China or Iran.

Constatine · Answer

You didn't. You just forgot where you parked it.

JesseP1nk · Answer

let bricktop tell you what i think

FunkyMonkee · Answer

Put Joe Biden in charge of getting it out of Afghanistan!

Guido · Answer

It was hacked and remotely flown to a secret airfield to be used in a coup to take over Disney World.

FellowTraveler · Answer

Well Aviator Tom, apparently quite easily!

robocop666 · Answer

The US military are utterly garbage. They can do anything wrong.

Andres77 · Answer

Fukkin marines…🤦 😏

MysticDevice · Answer

You'd be surprised how often that happens.

Sparkie460 · Answer

Park it at bidens house. Nobody will ever find it.

AngryCarl2 · Answer

You just explained how they lost it. lol

BLP11520 · Answer

WTF?

How do you LOSE a MILITARY JET?

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