The F-35B British fighter jet stranded at the Thiruvananthapuram airport in India’s southern state of Kerala for more than five weeks is finally all set to fly out to the UK on Tuesday. The state-of-the-art fighter jet is due to be “pulled back from the hangar today and the departure is scheduled for Tuesday”, said airport officials as per reports.
The fighter jet was on a routine sortie over the Indian Ocean when it came across bad weather roughly 100 nautical miles off the coast of India, forcing it to abandon plans to return to its aircraft carrier, the Royal Navy’s flagship HMS Prince of Wales. The pilot requested emergency landing clearance at Thiruvananthapuram airport after a technical glitch.
The incident raised questions on how a modern aircraft could remain stranded in a foreign country for so long.
After the plane was unable to fly, engineers from the Royal Navy’s flagship carrier arrived to fix it but were unable to do so.
The UK Ministry of Defence then said that it has deployed a team of 14 engineers to assess and repair the F-35B aircraft. The team came with specialist equipment necessary for the movement and repair, a statement said.
There were speculations that if the technicians failed to repair the jet, it would have to be dismantled and moved back to UK in a bigger cargo plane like C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
Airport officials revealed on Monday that “the aircraft is confirmed to be airworthy” and is scheduled to be pulled out of the hangar, but the exact time of its departure is “yet to be communicated”.
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F-35B is a highly advanced stealth jet built by Lockheed Martin and is known for its short take-off and vertical landing capability.
Images of the F-35B parked on the tarmac inspired several memes, with many suggesting that it did not want to leave the scenic state of Kerala, described as “God's own country”.
