The four-minute recording captures the bizarre circumstances for the three unidentified people involved: a North Charleston resident calmly explaining that a pilot just parachuted into his backyard, the pilot who doesn\u2019t know what became of his F-35 jet, and a puzzled dispatcher trying to make sense of it all.<\/p>\n
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Airmen from Joint Base Charleston speak to a family living right next to the site of a crashed F-35 about the operation to recover the fighter jet and requests for the family in Williamsburg County, S.C., on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cWe got a pilot in the house, and I guess he landed in my backyard, and we\u2019re trying to see if we could get an ambulance to the house, please,\u201d the resident said.<\/p>\n The pilot, who said he was 47, reported feeling \u201cOK\u201d after falling what he estimated was 2000 feet (600 metres). Only his back hurt, he said. The resident said the pilot looked fine.<\/p>\n \u201cMa\u2019am, a military jet crashed. I\u2019m the pilot. We need to get rescue rolling,\u201d the pilot said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure where the airplane is. It would have crash landed somewhere. I ejected.\u201d<\/p>\n Later in the call, he made another plea for medical help.<\/p>\n \u201cMa\u2019am, I\u2019m a pilot in a military aircraft, and I ejected. So I just rode a parachute down to the ground. Can you please send an ambulance?\u201d the pilot said.<\/p>\n The Marines have described the pilot as an experienced aviator with decades of experience in the cockpit.<\/p>\n The F-35 crashed Sunday after a malfunction prompted the pilot to eject over Charleston and land in the backyard not far from Charleston International Airport. The fighter jet, which the Marine Corps said was at an altitude of only about 1000 feet (300 metres), kept flying for 100 kilometres until it crashed in a rural area near Indiantown. It took more than a day to locate the wreckage.<\/p>\n A feature on fighter jets intended to protect pilots in emergencies could explain how it managed to continue its travels, the US Marine Corps said Thursday. They said that while it was unclear why the jet kept flying, flight control software would have worked to keep it steady if there were no longer a pilot\u2019s hands on the controls.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the jet is stable in level flight, the jet will attempt to stay there. If it was in an established climb or descent, the jet will maintain a 1G state in that climb or descent until commanded to do something else,\u201d the Marine Corps said in a statement. \u201cThis is designed to save our pilots if they are incapacitated or lose situational awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n Other questions about the crash remained, notably why the plane wasn\u2019t tracked as it continued flying over South Carolina and how it could take more than a day to find a massive fighter jet that had flown over populated, although rural, areas.<\/p>\n The Marines said features that erase a jet\u2019s secure communications in case of an ejection \u2014 a feature designed to protect both the pilot\u2019s location and the plane\u2019s classified systems \u2014 may also have complicated efforts to find it.<\/p>\n \u201cNormally, aircraft are tracked via radar and transponder codes,\u201d the Marines said. \u201cUpon pilot ejection, the aircraft is designed to erase (or \u2018zeroise\u2019) all secure communication.\u201d<\/p>\n An F-35 fighter.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n The plane would have kept broadcasting an identifier on an open channel to identify itself as friend or foe \u2014 but even on an unclassified communications channel air traffic control may not have been able to pick up the signal depending on how powerful its radar was, the weather at the time, how high the plane was flying and the terrain, the Marines said. They said thunderstorms and low cloud ceilings further hampered the search for the plane.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen coupled with the F-35\u2019s stealth capabilities, tracking the jet had to be done through non-traditional means,\u201d the service said in its statement.<\/p>\n The incident is still under investigation and results from an official review board could take months.<\/p>\n However, the Marines said the feature that kept the plane flying may not only have saved the life of the pilot but of others on the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cThe good news is it appeared to work as advertised. The other bit of silver lining in this case is that through the F-35 flying away it avoided crashing into a densely populated area surrounding the airport, and fortunately crashed into an empty field and forested area,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n