Alaska jet crash: F-35 pilot spent almost an hour on conference with engineers mid-air

The US Air Force F-35 pilot who was forced to eject before his fighter jet crashed onto an Alaska runway earlier this year had a 50 minute conference call mid-air with engineers so that the fault could be fixed.

A video of the January 28 crash at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks had gone viral after the incident in which the aircraft could be seen dropping straight down and exploding in a fireball, before the pilot ejects and safely floats to the ground with the help of a parachute. The pilot escaped with only minor injuries but the $200 million fighter jet went up in flames and was destroyed completely.

Why and how did the crash happen

The accident took place when the pilot tried to retract the landing gear after takeoff but failed to do completely. Attempts to fix the landing gear did not work and the plane crashed.

According to an Air Force investigation, ice in the hydraulic lines in the nose and main landing gears of the F-35 prevented the landing gear to function properly due to which the crash happened, reported CNN.

Pilots conversation with engineers and attempt to fix problem

After having failed to figure out the problem with the landing gear and fix it by himself, the pilot got on a conference call with engineers from the plane’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.

Five engineers, including a senior software engineer, a flight safety engineer and three specialists in landing gear systems, were part of the nearly one hour call trying to help the pilot but not much success could be achieved, reported the media outlet.

Later, investigation into the incident revealed about one-third of fluid present in both the nose and right main landing gears of the the hydraulic systems, which should not have been the case.

A similar hydraulic icing problem in another F-35 at the same base during a flight nine days after the crash was detected during the investigation, however, this time the jet landed safely.