Honestly, if you've seen the footage of an F-35 jet crash, it’s usually terrifying. One second, you have a $100 million masterpiece of stealth engineering humming through the sky; the next, it’s a massive fireball in the dirt. Most people see the headlines and assume it’s just "engine failure" or "pilot error." But the reality is way more complicated than that.
Military aviation is inherently risky, but the F-35 Lightning II is a special case. It's basically a flying supercomputer. When things go south, they go south in ways that are often bizarre—like the jet that kept flying for 60 miles without a pilot.
The Albuquerque "Pancake" and the STOVL Struggle
Just this past May, specifically on May 28, 2024, a developmental F-35B went down right after taking off from Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. It was supposed to be a routine delivery flight from the Lockheed Martin factory in Fort Worth to Edwards Air Force Base. Instead, the plane barely cleared the runway before it "pancaked" into the desert scrub.
The pilot ejected at a super low altitude. He survived, but he got banged up pretty bad.
What's wild is the configuration. The F-35B is the "STOVL" version—Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing. It has this massive lift fan behind the cockpit and a nozzle that swivels 90 degrees. Witnesses saw the jet nose-high with the lift fan doors wide open. It looked like it was trying to transition between vertical and horizontal flight but just ran out of lift. When you lose power or software logic in that specific window, there isn't much a pilot can do.
That "Zombie Jet" in South Carolina
You probably remember the "missing jet" saga from September 2023. This was the peak of F-35 weirdness. A Marine Corps pilot ejected over North Charleston during a heavy rainstorm. He landed in someone’s backyard, walked to the front door, and asked to use the phone.
"I’m not sure where the airplane is. It would have crash-landed somewhere. I ejected." — Actual 911 call from the pilot.
The jet didn't crash. Not immediately, anyway. Because the F-35's flight control software is designed to keep the plane stable even if the pilot is incapacitated, it just... kept going. It flew for another 11 minutes and 21 seconds, covering 64 nautical miles before finally hitting the ground in a rural area.
The investigation eventually labeled it pilot error, but that feels like a bit of a simplification. The pilot was dealing with a massive electrical failure. His $400,000 helmet—which is supposed to let him "see through" the floor of the plane—went dark three different times. His radios failed. His transponder failed. In the middle of a storm, with no instruments and a plane that felt like it was falling apart, he made the call to get out.
Technical Gremlins: It's Not Always the Engine
When we talk about an F-35 jet crash, people usually blame the engine. And yeah, Pratt & Whitney has had some issues with the F135 engine. Specifically, there was a "harmonic vibration" problem that caused a crash in Fort Worth in 2022. The vibration literally caused a fuel tube to fracture.
👉 See also: Why the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Still Matters (and What Everyone Gets Wrong)
But often, the culprit is the Air Data System (ADS).
Take the October 2022 crash at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The pilot was flying in a formation of four. He hit the "wake turbulence" (the messy air) of the jet in front of him. Normally, this is no big deal. But the F-35's sensors got confused by the turbulent air. The computer started getting conflicting data from the left and right sides of the plane.
Instead of ignoring the bad data, the computer started toggling between different sensors so fast that the flight controls went haywire. The jet started oscillating wildly. The pilot tried to override it, but the computer basically said, "I've got this," and then drove the plane into the ground.
The Real Cost of a Mishap
Losing one of these isn't just a blow to the ego. It’s a massive financial hit.
💡 You might also like: How Hubble Space Telescope Galaxies Changed Our Entire Understanding of the Universe
- F-35A (Air Force): ~$82.5 million
- F-35B (Marine Corps): ~$109 million
- F-35C (Navy): ~$102 million
And that’s just the "flyaway" cost. That doesn't include the millions of dollars in pods, fuel, and the decades of R&D that go into the airframe. When the Eielson AFB crash happened in January 2025 (caused by frozen hydraulic fluid contaminated with water), the total loss was valued at $196.5 million.
Why the F-35 Still Matters (Despite the Headlines)
If these jets keep crashing, why are we spending $2 trillion on the program?
It’s because of the "stealth" part. Even when that jet was flying pilotless over South Carolina, civilian radar couldn't find it. The military had to ask the public for help on Twitter. That’s embarrassing for PR, but it’s a weirdly effective proof of concept for the stealth technology.
The F-35 isn't just a plane; it's a sensor node. It sees everything on the battlefield and shares that data with every other ship, plane, and soldier in the area. Most of the time, it works perfectly. But when you push the limits of physics and software at the same time, the margin for error becomes razor-thin.
📖 Related: LG Premier Pro Plus: What Most People Get Wrong About This Budget Survivor
Actionable Insights for Aviation Enthusiasts and Taxpayers
If you're following these incidents, don't just look at the "crash" headline. Here is how to actually evaluate the safety of the fleet:
- Check the Variant: If it's a "B" model (STOVL), the issues are usually related to the complex lift-fan machinery or the transition phase of flight.
- Look for "Class A" Mishap Reports: The military categorizes crashes this way. You can find redacted versions of these reports through the Air Force or Navy Safety Centers. They give you the actual technical breakdown, not the media's "it fell out of the sky" version.
- Watch the Software Version: Many recent issues are tied to the TR-3 (Technology Refresh 3) rollout. This is a massive hardware and software upgrade that has been plagued by delays and "glitches" in the flight code.
- Understand the Flight Hours: Context matters. While 11 or 12 crashes since 2018 sounds like a lot, the global fleet has flown over 800,000 hours. Statistically, the F-35 is actually safer at this point in its lifecycle than the F-16 was.
To stay informed, monitor the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) updates and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports. These are the "unfiltered" sources that explain whether the latest F-35 jet crash was a freak accident or a systemic flaw that needs a fleet-wide fix.