They Kept That One Quiet…

[Gromit]

Did you know, last month we lost an £100million F35B Lightning fighter jet?

It crashed into the Mediterranean after tumbling off the edge of HMS Queen Elizabeth's flight deck.

The pilot ejected and was found safe, but the state-of-the-art fighter jet languished at the bottom of the sea and has only recently been recovered.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-59593047

[dannyk13]

Gromit // They kept that one quiet//
No they haven't:-
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/17/british-f35-jet-crashes-into-mediterranean

[pixie374]

Mine is.... what a total waste of money.

[davebro]

someone will be in the brig!

[ToraToraTora]

It was not kept quiet anyway, I was reading about it yesterday. Some debris blocked the air intake so the jet did not get enough power to get enough speed to take off.

[davebro]

//Some debris blocked the air intake //

A report I read suggested an engine cover hadn't been removed.

[choux]

You must have been napping a lot, Gromit. The press were on it straight away and made the most of the need to race the Russians to recovery of the craft.

[royfromaus]

Did you know, last month we lost an £100million F35B Lightning fighter jet



Yes I did.

[Etch]

It was reported at the time, so, yes, I did know:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59323895

[Gromit]

Yes, it totally passed me by. On that day I was posting on Poirot’s moustache protector and people gluing their noses to the M25.
Surprised no one posted about it on here. Pretty rare that a jet falls off a British aircraft carrier.

[vulcan42]

I doubt very much an engine cover wasn't removed. There is a very strict routine before an aircraft takes off. A crew of five remove covers, holding down chains, chocks, these are then checked by a senior rating before the items are shown physically to the pilot. A senior officer also checks the aircraft and finally the despatcher checks before he does the Elvis impression indicating to the pilot he can take off. The speed of that aircraft suggests engine failure.

[choux]

Perhaps we didn't want to alert Russia?

;)

[bhg481]

I read that the engine cover was found floating in the sea, leading to the assumption that it hadn't been removed.

[vulcan42]

bhg481, I would suggest that engine cover didn't come from the aircraft that crashed. The final preparations of all aircraft taking off are very strict. Before departing the aircraft goes to full power which results in a powerful backdraft, it's quite possible this backdraft blew the cover off another aircraft.

[THECORBYLOON]

If it's the same incident, I seen a report a few week ago about a red cover over one intake not being removed.

[davebro]

*** happens!

[Etch]

I guess the reason it didn't get mentioned on AB was because not even the usual suspects could dream up a way of blaming it on the PM/the EU/illegal immigrants/Prince Harry/Meghan Markle/...

[bhg481]

aircraft used to have their own engine covers with the registration on them; I don't know if this is still the case.

[andres]

There have been numerous incidents like this in the past . Maybe we should be like the Japanese , they have nets on either side of the deck on some of their aircraft carriers.

[naomi24]

I'd read about it.