JASDF F-35A crashed

Tuesday, 9 April 2019:
F-35A.
79-8705.
302nd Hikoutai, 3rd Koukuudan, JASDF, based at Misawa AB, Aomori Prefecture.

18:59, took off, for air combat training, at Misawa AB.
#1 of flight of four.

19:27, during training, lost radar and radio contacts, above Pacific Ocean, 135 km east from Misawa AB.

One pilot.

Major (40s).

After 19:47, JASDF rescue squadrons scrambled 11 aircraft.

After 19:50, JMSDF rescue squadrons scrambled four ships, three aircraft.

After 21:45, found floating debris.

22:10, UH-60J, of Akita Kyuunantai, recovered debris.

22:48, JDS Chikuma recovered debris.

SAR activities.
JASDF: U-125A x 2, UH-60J x 2.
JMSDF: P-3C x 1, SH-60J x 1, ship x 5.
JCG: Ship x 3.
USN: P-8 x 1.

https://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/news/houdou/index.html
https://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/news/houdou/ ... 9_2030.pdf
https://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/news/houdou/ ... 410_01.pdf

MOD official news releases.

To be fair, during the Cold War decades, JASDF personnel tried to defect.

For example, on 24 June 1962, a ground mechanic borrowed a T-33A (81-5361, #361) of 7th Hikoutai, 4th Koukuudan, JASDF, based at Matsushima AB, Miyagi Prefecture, but he failed to take off, overran runway, crashed, and wounded himself.
To prevent pursuit by two F-86F on alert duty, he damaged or sabotaged their landing gear.

For another example, on 23 June 1973, another ground mechanic borrowed a LM-1 (JG-1005, 21005) of JGSDF, based at JGSDF Kita Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture.
Reportedly, he was drunk, managed to take off, disappeared into the night, and presumably crashed into sea, somewhere.

FYI, the editors of this http://www.f-16.net site can confirm I know a lot about military aviation accidents in Japan. 8D

To be fair, during the Cold War decades, JASDF personnel tried to defect.

Why the hell would anybody want to defect to the USSR? Hell even Bernie didn't do that.

[quote="sferrin"]Why the hell would anybody want to defect [i]to[/i] the USSR? Hell even Bernie didn't do that.[/quote]

Reportedly, that dude wanted to defect to Red China. 8(

Money. That is the reason.

China and Russia promise as many Gold bars as you can carry for a look at the F-35.
Or an open account in the Maldives, or any other tax- pleasure island.

India will bring 50 virgins to play with. (But seeing the latest reports, they are running out of virgins FAST. )

Well "wanting" to defect may not be the only reason to defect.
Chinese Triads can hold someone's relatives hostage or something. But we're going too far into Tom Clancy territory here.

Other possibilities the pilot might have had an aneurysm, stroke, or heart attack. He might also have made a bad life choice and purposely dived into the ocean. All that is known publicly at the moment is that it is in pieces in the water.

Money. That is the reason.

China and Russia promise as many Gold bars as you can carry for a look at the F-35.
Or an open account in the Maldives, or any other tax- pleasure island.

India will bring 50 virgins to play with. (But seeing the latest reports, they are running out of virgins FAST. )

I hope CIA is working to bring a J-20 or Su-57 over. No much tech to gain from it but a massive embarrassment. On the flipside, though of losing a F-35 via defection sends shivers down my spine. Too much to lose.

Money. That is the reason.

China and Russia promise as many Gold bars as you can carry for a look at the F-35.
Or an open account in the Maldives, or any other tax- pleasure island.

India will bring 50 virgins to play with. (But seeing the latest reports, they are running out of virgins FAST. )

I hope CIA is working to bring a J-20 or Su-57 over. No much tech to gain from it but a massive embarrassment. On the flipside, though of losing a F-35 via defection sends shivers down my spine. Too much to lose.

Not really needed, which how much of modern aircraft design and planning is computer based, it's just easier to steal the digital files. But it's is so much easier for counter intel now a days, makes me really wonder how much of the F-35 the Chinese have stolen or should I say how much of the "F-35" they have stolen

A bit OT: during the Cold War decades, PRC and ROC military pilots defected to the other side.
In ROC, a PRC pilot who survived the defection (direct to ROC, or via ROK), got a lot of real gold, the amount/weight of which depended on his aircraft type.
Some converted the gold into cash, invested wisely, and maybe emigrated to USA; others wasted the cash.

OTOH, after a ROC pilot defected to PRC, the pilot's squadronmates (after they got investigated by the Political Warfare Department) probably claimed he gambled, and owed a lot of money, or his wife had another lover.
Said pilot would, in radio or TV interviews, deny the claims, and bash the ROC military (under dictator General Chiang), the ROC government (under dictator General Chiang), and the ROC capitalist society.

I guess such illegal immigrations happened in the Germanies too. 8(

IMO there's another possibility which is mentioned (although not directly) on the part of the article shared by spazsinbad, which I re-post below:

The crashed aircraft, which the JASDF identified as serial number 79-8705, was the first of 13 Japanese F-35As assembled so far by Mitsubishi’s final assembly and check out facility in Nagoya. In addition to the 12 JASDF F-35As affected by the temporary Japanese grounding order, the 14th aircraft assembled, which is still at Nagoya and undergoing pre-delivery flight tests, has also been grounded....

Perhaps something was wrongly assembled by the Japanese??

"Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras."

Assembly of the F-35 at FACOs is supervised/monitored/secured by DoD/LM personnel. Then the aircraft are flight tested. The first assembled is flown to the USofA for stealth testing then transferred to the training squadrons at Luke AFB.

Crash reportedly occurred around 7:30pm local time. That'd be around dusk this time of year, eh? Probably something far more mundane like spatial disorientation close the water... possibly with -A helmet lighting not helping with rapidly darkening environs. (Or did all the Navy helmet mods get pushed to ALL helmets worldwide?)

Aviation can be dangerous. Military aviation doubly so. At dusk, over water... if sh*t goes sideways... things can go downhill fast.

Play at the Tom Clancy and "he musta been a spy" claptrap if you must... but it diminishes the forum, and disrespects the pilot and the professionalism of the Japanese military.

...Play at the Tom Clancy and "he musta been a spy" claptrap if you must... but it diminishes the forum, and disrespects the pilot and the professionalism of the Japanese military.

Agree. I was going to make a similar comment however I'm tired complaining of people taking threads REALLY OFF TOPIC.

About the other stuff of Steven the Wondrous. Yeah speculation. Out at sea it is BLACK to the naked eye there is no horizon and it is like being in a black hole (often said). However the F-35 has plenty of instrument aids for the pilot to better combat disorientation except as this pilot has only 60 hours in an F-35 apparently PERHAPS as other pilots comment 'they needed 50 hours to adjust to the HMDS but they'll never go back' PERHAPS some other learnt behavior from previous 3,000 hours of experience kicked in momentarily for this pilot to make a fatal mistake. Who knows.