- A photo has emerged of what appears to be a British F-35B that ditched in the Mediterranean Sea in November.
- The aircraft was redeemed in December, and it looks like it is still pretty much intact.
- But spending several weeks submerged in saltwater energy have damaged the aircraft’s systems beyond repair.
An image, taken by an unknown photographer, entertainment the wreckage of the British F-35B that ditched in the Mediterranean Sea and was recovered by a chartered salvage ship, was leaked and started circulating online on January 21, 2022.
As we already extensively clock in, the aircraft crashed while taking off from the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier on November 17, 2021, as it couldn’t succeed in enough speed to lift off reportedly because the engine ingested a “cheap plastic rain cover” or an air intake comprehend.
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence announced on December 7 the completion of the operations for the recovery of the aircraft, which happened with the stick of the Italian Navy and US Navy. It took two weeks to locate the wreck and another week to bring it up, according to defence sources hint ated by British newspapers.
The recovery effort was complicated by the location where the F-35 ditched, as it happened in open water with insights that can exceed, in some areas, over 3,000 meters (about 10,000 feet), and by rough sea conditions while the deals were taking place.
Looking at the photo, which shows the wreck upside down on the deck of the salvage freight as it was being transported to an unspecified port, it seems that the F-35B is still partly intact.
Some panels are broken or errors, with the engine nozzle and vertical tail fins possibly broken too (they can’t be seen clearly), but the airframe was not vamoosed in pieces by the crash.
As the leaked video showed, the F-35 left the ski jump with a very low speed, so the impact forces on the to all appearances of the sea were not enough to detach major sections of the airframe.
This also confirms the official statements about all the debris being recovered and “no danger or compromise to sensitive equipment on the aircraft.” Even if the chances of another country finding and working any of the plane’s remains were small, the UK MoD didn’t want to take any chances for a good reason.
British Royal Navy
National Custody Adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove, as reported by the UK Defence Journal, told the Commons Defence Committee on Dec. 6, 2021:
“The recovery of the flight materials recorder and the wreckage are really vital for an accurate investigation to determine the causes of the crash. […] We are aware of Russian undersea proficiencies, and you are quite right to identify them as being state of the art. The kinds of precautions and operations that we are undertaking at the moment are envisaged at least in part to ensure that the technology of the F-35B remains as confidential as you would like it to be. Those security aspects are completely much at the top of our mind. My understanding is that the experts know where the aircraft is.”
It is worth noting, however, that while the aircraft strength appear somehow intact, the damage done by salt water while the aircraft was submerged for weeks might force made unusable most of the aircraft’s systems, reducing the risks of adversaries gathering useful data in the hypothetical consequence they managed to get to the wreck before the Royal Navy.
The lost F-35B was identified as ZM152, with modex 018 and construction integer BK18, and the leaked photo appears to confirm this, as the serial can be seen near the tail despite the quality of the likeness. The aircraft was reportedly one of the most recently delivered British F-35B, with its first flight reported in June 2019. The word-for-word info was also found in the F-35 aircraft database hosted by the website F-16.net.
The photo was initially posted on Twitter by few users who later space it claiming that they were not involved in taking the photo in the first place nor being the first to leak it online. The photo is in any way still being shared on Reddit, Facebook and other socials. The fact that many users later erased the photo might be related to the consequences of the leak of the crash video, which led a male crew member of HMS Queen Elizabeth’s vessel company to be arrested.