On 28 January 2025, an F-35A Lightning II fighter jet crashed at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska. The pilot had actually invested 50 minutes on a live call with engineers from Lockheed Martin, the jet’s producer, trying to resolve a severe landing equipment breakdown before being required to eject.
Video footage shared on social networks revealed the $200 million jet spiralling towards the ground before blowing up in a fireball. The pilot drifted down securely under a parachute, getting away with abrasions and a compression fracture to his spinal column.
Frozen hydraulic fluid behind the breakdown
An Air Force examination concluded that the crash was triggered by water contamination in the hydraulic systems of the nose and primary landing equipment. When exposed to the minus 18 degree Celsius conditions in Alaska, the water froze and jammed the nose wheel at a left angle.
Col Michael Lewis, president of the Accident Investigation Board, composed in his report: “The cascading occasions started when the water in the nose landing equipment strut froze initially.”
Sensing units then improperly informed the airplane it was on the ground. As an outcome, the onboard systems moved into automated ground mode while still air-borne, making the jet difficult to manage.
2 stopped working efforts to conserve the F-35 jet
After liftoff, another pilot discovered the nose landing equipment door was still open. The wingman likewise reported that the nose wheel was locked at 17 degrees to the.
The pilot and Lockheed Martin engineers, signed up with by the Eielson manager of flying, talked about choices throughout the 50-minute call. Together, they chose to try 2 “touch and go” manoeuvres to correct the jammed wheel. Both efforts stopped working. Rather, ice spread through the hydraulics, leaving all 3 landing equipments not able to extend appropriately.
The board concluded that “team decision-making consisting of those on the in-flight teleconference” added to the mishap.
Indication before the crash
Lockheed Martin had actually provided an upkeep publication in April 2024 alerting that the F-35’s sensing units might provide incorrect ground readings in severe cold, making it “challenging for the pilot to keep control of the airplane”.
The Alaska mishap was not separated. Simply 9 days after the crash, another F-35 at the exact same base experienced a comparable “hydraulic icing” fault, however that airplane handled to land securely.
Because going into service, there have actually been around 32 F-35 crashes. In July, an F-35C coming from the United States Navy decreased in California.
A long record of expense and criticism
The F-35 program has actually dealt with years of analysis over expense, intricacy and production practices. The airplane’s rate per system has actually dropped from $135.8 million in 2021 to about $81 million under a 2024 arrangement, however the life time expense is predicted to exceed $2 trillion.
Elon Musk contributed to criticism in 2024, composing: “The F-35 style was broken at the requirements level, due to the fact that it was needed to be a lot of things to a lot of individuals. This made it a costly & & complicated jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never ever in the set of possible results. And manned fighter jets are outdated in the age of drones anyhow. Will simply get pilots eliminated.”
The United States Government Accountability Office approximates the program will run up until 2088.
A more comprehensive pattern of F-35 fighter jet mishaps
The Alaska occurrence followed another crash in January 2024, when an F-16C coming from the 8th Fighter Wing in South Korea decreased in the Yellow Sea after an engine stall triggered by hardware failure.
The report into that crash concluded: “The Accident Investigation Board President discovered by a prevalence of proof the reason for the accident was an engine stall due to hardware failure.”
It was among 3 F-16 crashes in South Korea in between 2023 and 2024, raising issues about upkeep requirements and aging hardware.
Australia’s function in the worldwide supply chain
The F-35 is the item of a large supply network including more than 1,900 business worldwide. Australia is an essential factor, with over 75 companies providing parts. Victoria alone produces more than 700 parts, and RUAG Australia is the sole international provider of the uplock actuator system, which enables the F-35 to open its weapons bay while staying sneaky.
The Australian Department of Defence has stated its market has actually made about $5 billion from the program up until now. Defence Minister Richard Marles specified, “Australia has actually not provided weapons or ammo to Israel because the Israel-Gaza dispute started and not for a minimum of the previous 5 years.”
Critics, nevertheless, argue that due to the fact that the international supply chain is centrally handled by Lockheed Martin, parts made in Australia still add to airplane released in dispute zones.
The Alaska crash exposed more than simply a frozen hydraulic line. It exposed how an airplane at the heart of United States defence policy can be lowered by contamination in its fluid systems. It revealed the limitations of real-time analytical, even with direct access to the producer mid-flight. And it highlighted when again the stress in between the F-35’s massive price and the security concerns that continue to emerge nearly twenty years after its very first flight.
