Pilot secure after F-35 army jet suffers ‘important harm’ in accident at Alaska base

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A U.S. Air Pressure pilot was reported to be secure after a single-seat F-35 fighter jet crashed Tuesday throughout a coaching train at a base in Alaska.

The pilot skilled an “inflight malfunction” however was in a position to eject from the plane, Col. Paul Townsend, commander of the 354th Fighter Wing, instructed a information convention. The aircraft crashed throughout the touchdown part of the flight at Eielson Air Pressure Base, he mentioned.

The pilot had declared an inflight emergency previous to the crash and was in secure situation and being evaluated at a medical facility, he mentioned.

The crash, which occurred early Tuesday afternoon, triggered important harm to the plane, the Air Pressure mentioned in an announcement.

Eielson Air Pressure Base is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Fairbanks.

Townsend mentioned within the assertion mentioned the Air Pressure would conduct “an intensive investigation in hopes to attenuate the possibilities of such occurrences from taking place once more.”

Eielson was chosen in 2016 to host 54 F-35s, spawning an growth that value greater than a half-billion {dollars} that was to incorporate 36 new buildings and dozens of housing models. The growth included about 3,500 new lively responsibility airmen and their dependents.

With the aptitude to fly greater than 12 hours at a time, the F-35 can attain nearly wherever within the Northern Hemisphere in a single mission.

In Might, an F-35 fighter jet on its method from Texas to Edwards Air Pressure Base close to Los Angeles crashed after the pilot stopped to refuel in New Mexico. The pilot was taken to a hospital with severe accidents.

In October, a Marine investigation blamed the pilot of an F-35 for ejecting from the plane when he didn’t have to, inflicting the fighter to fly unmanned for 11 minutes earlier than it crashed in rural South Carolina in 2023.