Marine Corps F-35 fighter jet missing after 'mishap' over South Carolina

The U.S. military can't find a very advanced, very expensive fighter jet

Marine Corps F-35B
Marine Corps F-35B
(Image credit: Leon Neal / Getty Images)

A Marine Corps F-35B Lighting II fighter jet is missing in South Carolina after a "mishap" Sunday that caused the pilot to eject over Charleston, Joint Base Charleston said. The unidentified pilot parachuted into a North Charleston neighborhood at about 2 p.m. on Sunday and was in stable condition at a local hospital, a spokesperson for the base said. 

"If you have any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35, please call the Base Defense Operations Center," Joint Base Charleston said on X, formerly Twitter. "Based on the jet's last-known position and in coordination with the FAA, we are focusing our attention north of JB Charleston, around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion." The FAA referred any question to the military. A South Carolina Law Enforcement Division helicopter joined the search, The Associated Press reported. 

The F-35, made by Lockheed Martin, is one of the most advanced and expensive fighter jets in the world. The F-35B has a list price of about $90 million, but upgrades have inflated the cost of the over-budget program. An F-35A — "the cheapest of the three models" in production — that crashed in Utah last year was valued at $166 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

About a dozen F-35s have been destroyed in crashes since they entered service in 2015, the Journal reported. "The aircraft are equipped with transponders and beacons, and several have been recovered from hostile environments," including from a depth of more than 12,000 feet in the South China Sea last year and from the floor of the Mediterranean in 2021. Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion "each have an average depth of less than 20 feet and are around 75 feet at their deepest point," the Journal noted.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.