WASHINGTON — The Pentagon grounds the global fleet of F-35 stealth fighters on Thursday, as a result of the first ever crash of the costliest plane in history.
A Marine Corps F-35B was completely destroyed in a crash during training in South Carolina on September 28. The pilot safely ejected.
According to Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the F-35 program, the US and its international partners — including Britain and Israel — have temporarily suspended F-35 flight operations for a fleet-wide inspection of a fuel tube within the engine on all F-35 aircraft.
“The action to perform the inspection is driven from initial data from the ongoing investigation of the F-35B that crashed in the vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina,” DellaVedova says in a statement.
Inspections are expected to be completed within the next 24 to 48 hours.
Launched in the early 1990s, the F-35 program is considered the most expensive weapons system in US history, with an estimated cost of some $400 billion and a goal to produce 2,500 aircraft in the coming years.
— AFP
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