British F-35, here are the hypotheses on the accident
According to the tabloid The Sun, the failure to remove the rain cover before takeoff caused the crash of a British F-35B last week
There would be human error behind the accident involving a British F-35 in the Mediterranean.
On 17 November, the British Ministry of Defense confirmed the crash of an F-35 Lightning II operating from the aircraft carrier HMSQueen Elizabeth in the Mediterranean. The pilot ejected himself safely, but the crash triggered a rush to retrieve the plane, which contains a lot of classified equipment. ( Here the more detailed Start on F-35 crashed in the Mediterranean, what happened).
The dicastery also informed that it had launched an investigation into the incident, but did not comment further.
According to The Sun , the cause of the accident would be the failure to remove the rain cover of the fighter-bomber. According to British tabloid sources, the cover was sucked into the aircraft's engine as it took off from the HMS Queen Elizabeth flight deck, forcing the pilot to eject himself.
The sources told the Sun that Royal Navy personnel realized the problem "almost immediately" because the rules on removing the covers before flights are "incredibly strict".
However, at the moment this is a hypothesis that the British Defense has not confirmed.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom and the United States are engaged in recovery operations of the F-35B crashed in the waters of the Mediterranean. It is the first accident involving a RAF F-35B, although in the last three years there have been three.
All the details.
THE HYPOTHESIS ON THE CAUSE OF THE BRITISH F-35 ACCIDENT
The Sun reported yesterday that a "cheap plastic cover" left during take-off may have caused the crash.
Sources also said that the RAF pilot would have realized the problem and tried to interrupt the take-off, to no avail. According to the tabloid, naval personnel reported seeing the cover floating in the sea near the aircraft carrier after the incident in the Mediterranean.
WHAT THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE HAS DECLARED
The defense ministry has insisted that the incident does not depend on any "hostile action". On Sunday evening, the ministry said the investigation was focusing on technical or human errors, reports the Daily Mail .
RECOVERY OPERATIONS IN PROGRESS
“There is an operation underway to recover the British F-35 fighter” which crashed on 17 November.
Ben Wallace, UK Defense Secretary, told Sky News when asked about the mission to recover the sunken fifth generation aircraft.
According to press sources, the United Kingdom has asked the United States to help recover the crashed plane.
“An American unit based in Spain specializing in submarine rescue will be part of the recovery mission together with its UK counterparts. There are 10 American F-35Bs aboard the Queen Elizabeth in addition to eight British aircraft. One of the reasons for the US involvement in the recovery process is that the technology aboard the F-35B is American, ”reports Indipendent .
"Fortunately the Mediterranean is not that deep," a source familiar with the recovery operation told the British Sun newspaper.
Furthermore, "any attempt by a non-allied state to reach the wreck will be tracked" and "appropriate action will be taken," military sources tell Indipendent .
CONTINUE OTHER ACTIVITIES
Finally, the Secretary of Defense said that all British F-35 operational and training flights continue despite the crash.
In fact, flight activity continued for all F-35Bs, including those of the United States Marine Corps and the Italian Air Force and Navy. The latter were able to participate in an exercise on the Cavour aircraft carrier, in synergy with the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/f-35-britannico-ecco-le-ipotesi-sullincidente/ on Thu, 25 Nov 2021 05:50:58 +0000.