Fighter jet overboard!

The US Navy is to begin an urgent recovery operation to find an $83million F-35C stealth fighter which toppled off an aircraft carrier into the South China Sea. The pilot of the joint strike fighter was safely rescued after he ejected when the aircraft crash-landed on the deck of the carrier, USS Carl Vinson, during naval exercises in the region. However, as the drama unfolded, the aircraft slipped off the edge of the deck and fell into the water. The F-35C Lightning II contains the most advanced electronic and communications technology and were it to fall into the hands of the Chinese navy it would provide a goldmine of US naval secrets. The US 7th Fleet, responsible for naval missions in the region, said “recovery operations arrangements” were being made to locate the aircraft on the seabed and bring it back to the surface. The average depth of the South China Sea which covers more than 1,400 square miles is less than 4,000ft, making the recovery operation not too challenging, according to experts. It is the second time one of these latest carrier-borne fighter jets has had to be hauled up to the surface from an ocean seabed. Last year the Royal Navy lost an F-35B jump-jet version of the strike fighter in the Mediterranean after a failed take-off from the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Concerned that the Russian Navy might attempt to hunt for the aircraft, the F-35B was successfully salvaged from the seabed on December 7 from where the wreckage rested one mile below, with the help of the Americans and Italians after a two-week search. In the latest incident the USS Carl Vinson had been involved in a training mission with a second US carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln . A US 7th Fleet spokesman would not divulge the precise location of the Carl Vinson in the South China Sea. Following the statements from the 7th Fleet, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (Plan) is expected to send ships to watch the salvage process. The F-35C could be intact at the bottom of the sea because of the way it tumbled slowly off the deck. Seven sailors were injured in the incident, including the pilot. All are now recovered or in stable condition, the navy said. “Impact to the flight deck was superficial and all equipment for flight operations is operational,” Lieutenant Mark Langford, spokesman for the 7th Fleet, said.