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| Date: | Tuesday 9 April 2019 |
| Time: | 19:27 LT |
| Type: |  Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II |
| Owner/operator: | Japan Air Self-Defense Force - JASDF |
| Registration: | 79-8705 |
| MSN: | AX-05 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | 135 km E of Misawa Air Base (MSJ) -
 Japan
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Misawa Airport (MSJ/RJSM) |
| Misawa Airport (MSJ/RJSM) |
The F-35A went missing over sea while it was engaged in training with three other F-35A jets.
Some debris from the stealth fighter, including the tail, has been found at 21:45 LT the accident night, and were identified as parts of the accident plane next day. The ocean is 1500m deep at that point.
The aircraft had been in the air for 28 minutes when contact was lost. The pilot had 3,200 hours of flight time, with 60 hours on the F-35.
The crashed aircraft was the first of 13 Japanese F-35As assembled by Mitsubishi in Nagoya. The total flight time of the crashed F-35 was 280 hours, and two precaution landings had been performed before the accident; i.e. in June 2017 and August 2018. 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.
As of 19 April 2019, the pilot still has not been rescued and is deemed to have died in the crash.
On 7th June, Japanese Minister of Defense announced that a part of the pilot's body had been recovered from the bottom of the ocean at the accident site.
A summary of the interim accident report has been released on 10th June, and a summary of the final report followed on 9th August. According to these reports, the cause of the accident was possibly vertigo of the pilot.
At 19:25 LT the accident night, the pilot radioed "Two kill" (shoot down two simulated enemy planes). At 19:26, the F-35A was advised by ATC to descend for avoiding USF traffic at FL370. The pilot acknowledged it, and F-35A started a left descent from FL315. Twenty seconds later, at 19:26:15, the pilot radioed "Now, knock it off" (discontinue the exercise) at FL155. The average rate of descent of this 20 seconds was 48000 ft/min or 900 km/h. The rapid descent was continued until the lost of the radar contact at 19:26:30, 1000 ft above sea level. The descent rate of the last 15 seconds was 58000 ft/min or 11000 km/h. During this descent, the voice tone of the pilot's radio communication was calm, and there were no indication of bail-out attempt.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/hthjones/status/1115590240629075968
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/09/national/air-self-defense-force-fighter-jet-disappears-radar-pacific/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/wreckage-crashed-japanese-stealth-fighter-jet-190410025031786.html
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/wreckage-confirmed-to-be-from-crashed-japanese-f-35-fighter-11428506
https://japantoday.com/category/national/Wreckage-confirmed-to-be-crashed-Japanese-F-35-stealth-fighter-pilot-still-missing
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/04/09/a-japanese-f-35a-fighter-jet-is-missing-remaining-12-are-grounded/
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-japan-defence-f35-official/crashed-f-35-was-the-first-one-assembled-by-japans-mitsubishi-heavy-official-idUKKCN1RM09B?rpc=401&
https://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/news/houdou/H31/310410_01.pdf
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/article?a=20190412-00064088-gendaibiz-bus_all&p=1
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190412-00000050-jij-soci
https://news.usni.org/2019/04/26/navy-black-box-detector-joins-in-deep-water-hunt-for-missing-japanese-f-35a
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190610-00000048-jij-soci
https://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/news/houdou/H31/20190610.pdf
https://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/news/houdou/H31/20190809.pdf
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9090734 (photo)
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 09-Apr-2019 13:56 | Anon. | Added |
| 09-Apr-2019 13:59 | harro | Updated [Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 04:56 | Iceman 29 | Updated [Other fatalities, Source, Damage, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 04:57 | Iceman 29 | Updated [Narrative, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 05:33 | marko | Updated [Registration, Cn, Source, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 06:01 | RobertMB | Updated [Registration, Cn, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 06:04 | Aerossurance | Updated [Time, Registration, Cn, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 07:58 | RobertMB | Updated [Registration, Cn, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 09:10 | RobertMB | Updated [Departure airport, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 11:33 | Anon. | Updated [Source, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 11:33 | isamuel | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Apr-2019 13:43 | marko | Updated [Narrative, ] |
| 12-Apr-2019 12:36 | isamuel | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 19-Apr-2019 05:50 | gerard57 | Updated [Total fatalities, Narrative, ] |
| 26-Apr-2019 16:28 | Aerossurance | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Jun-2019 16:02 | isamuel | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 09-Aug-2019 10:40 | isamuel | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 27-May-2022 08:15 | TB | Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, ] |
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