Planefags…what do you think of this article and the radio communication right before the F35 crashed?
(www.thedrive.com)
✈️ Planefags ✈️
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Sounds like they were in radar trail going through the weather.
Surely inadvertent IMC is something a F35 pilot could handle, even if he/she went Nordo and no transponder? Wouldn't you just climb on heading above the cloud base and sort it out. They'd still be on radar just no mode Charlie for the controller?
It's not like they never climb/descend through layers after a sortie, hardly a day VMC pilot only. Something seems off with the whole thing.
It is not uncommon to come off the range and stay in radar trail coming home. I would imagine that they have the same kind of coastal weather crap that we did in North Carolina. No call prior to punching out likely means flight control failure.
So if they were in radar trail, he/she wouldn't be squawking, just formation on leads wing? So likely the transponder story is wrong per se? Disorientation in IMC perhaps? I read it flew on for about 80NM so doesn't seem like a FC failure.
I'm sure more of the story will come out soon. There is that wild story that a .50 cal was fired at it from the ground, or of course the spy balloon stuff.
Time will reveal more I guess.
Just a guess, but I don’t think the jet responded to anything he did with the stick. Total power failure is a remote possibility, but the radio still works on the battery. Too little information.