Do you live near Charleston, South Carolina, and suddenly have more vehicles in your yard than you’re used to? The extra vehicle may be an F-35B Lightning II jet from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, and they’re still looking for it.
The fighter jet was flying out of Joint Base Charleston, when an incident occurred that caused the pilot to hit the ejector button (the pilot is reportedly in stable condition). However, because the plane was in autopilot at that time, it just kept going.
While an errant jet with no pilot is bad enough on its own, Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman for the base, told the Washington Post that the transponder that normally helps locate the F-35 isn’t working “for some reason that we haven’t yet determined”. So the base doesn’t really know where it is.
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In order to find it, the base turned to what else? Social media. On twitter.com, it asked for the public’s help locating the plane. So, if you’ve seen it, would you mind calling 843-963-3600? The base added that the last place it saw the jet was to its north, around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion.
If you do happen upon it, the Marine Corps (which owns the plane) is asking you not to touch it or remove any pieces from it. While I imagine the nightmare of dealing with an angry branch of the military would be pretty bad, a piece of lost jet would be a pretty cool addition to any memorabilia collection.
The Marine Corps isn’t relying entirely on the help of the public to find the jet. It is also receiving assistance from the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration, as it investigates the disappearance, but it’s a stealth jet, so it’s hard to find.
“The aircraft is stealth, so it has different coatings and different designs that make it more difficult than a normal aircraft to detect,” said Huggins, highlighting the painful irony of this incident.
