F-35 Pilot's Hour-Long Tech Support Call Ends in $200 Million Jet Crash

The Cost of a Tech Support Call: F-35 Pilot's Hour-Long Dialogue Leads to Jet's Demise

We’ve all been there: stuck on hold, navigating automated menus, and repeating our issues to a succession of support agents, often with little to no resolution. For a U.S. Air Force F-35 pilot, however, a prolonged, unproductive conversation with Lockheed Martin’s technical support ultimately had a far more catastrophic outcome – the loss of a cutting-edge fighter jet valued at approximately $200 million.

A Critical Malfunction on a Training Mission

The incident, which unfolded on January 28th at Eielson Air Force Base, began as a routine training flight. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot encountered a critical malfunction: the F-35’s landing gear refused to retract fully. The situation quickly escalated when the pilot attempted to redeploy the gear, only for it to become jammed at an awkward angle, refusing to either retract or extend properly.

The Call to Lockheed: 50 Minutes of Futility

After exhausting standard emergency checklists without success, the pilot initiated a conference call with a team of Lockheed Martin engineers. For an agonizing 50 minutes, he engaged with a senior F-35 software programmer, a flight safety engineer, and three specialists dedicated to the landing gear systems. Despite their collective expertise, the recorded conversation reveals a stark lack of effective guidance or a viable solution. It’s a chilling testament to how even advanced technological support can falter when faced with unforeseen physical impediments.

Desperate Measures and Escalating Problems

In a bid to salvage the aircraft, the pilot attempted two perilous, "extreme landing" maneuvers. These involved brief touchdowns on the runway, presumably to jar the nose gear into a proper position. Tragically, these desperate attempts only exacerbated the situation. The nose wheel remained off-center, and worse, the main landing gear struts froze due to extreme cold, preventing them from deploying fully. The aircraft's onboard sensors, misinterpreting the partially deployed gear as the landing gear being down, rendered the jet uncontrollable.

Catapult Ejection and the Root Cause

With no other option, the pilot made the agonizing decision to eject, thankfully surviving with only minor injuries. The subsequent accident investigation pinpointed the culprit: ice crystals within the hydraulic lines of both the nose and main landing gear. This contamination had severely hampered their deployment. Astonishingly, the investigation revealed that the hydraulic system had been erroneously partially filled with water, making up about a third of the fluid. In the frigid temperatures encountered at altitude – a frigid -18°C on the day of the incident – this water froze, creating the critical blockage.

Failures in Oversight and Procedure

The Air Force Accident Investigation Board cited the lengthy conference call, a lack of oversight in the storage and distribution of hydraulic fluid, and a general failure to adhere to proper hydraulic maintenance procedures as primary causes of the crash. The report emphatically stated that adherence to a 2024 maintenance update would have likely steered the engineers toward recommending a controlled ejection or a planned, full-stop landing, rather than the ill-fated "touch-and-go" attempts. This situation serves as a stark reminder that sophisticated technology is only as effective as the human processes and oversight that support it.

A Troubling Pattern Emerges

The F-35's woes didn't end there. Just nine days later, another F-35 operating from the same base experienced similar hydraulic issues, also attributed to icing. Fortunately, in that instance, the pilot managed to bring the aircraft down safely, highlighting the persistent nature of the problem and the critical importance of rigorous maintenance protocols in extreme weather conditions.