F35 pilot spent 50 minutes on midair call with engineers before Alaska crash

A US Air Force F-35 pilot spent nearly an hour on an airborne conference call with Lockheed Martin engineers trying to fix a landing gear malfunction before ejecting, as the $200 million fighter jet plunged to the ground in Alaska earlier this year, an accident report has revealed.

The crash took place on January 28 at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks. Video footage showed the aircraft dropping vertically before exploding in a fireball. The pilot ejected safely with only minor injuries, but the plane was destroyed.

An Air Force investigation found that ice in the hydraulic lines of the F-35’s nose and main landing gears prevented them from deploying properly, CNN reported.

After takeoff, the pilot was unable to fully retract the landing gear. When he lowered it again, the nose gear locked at an angle to the left and failed to recenter, the report added.

According to the report, repeated attempts to fix the fault caused the jet’s systems to misinterpret its status: “The aircraft operated as though it was on the ground when flying,” forcing the pilot to eject.

After running through system checklists, the pilot joined a live conference call with five Lockheed Martin engineers, including a senior software engineer, a flight safety engineer, and three landing gear specialists. The call lasted 50 minutes as the aircraft circled near the base.

The pilot also attempted two “touch and go” landings to straighten the jammed nose gear, but those manoeuvres caused the left and right main landing gears to freeze up and fail to extend fully. With the F-35’s sensors registering the jet as being on the ground, its computer systems shifted into “automated ground-operation mode,” leaving the fighter “uncontrollable,” the report said.

An inspection of the wreckage revealed that about one-third of the hydraulic fluid in both the nose and right main landing gear systems was water, where none should have been present.

Investigators found that another F-35 at the same base experienced a similar hydraulic icing issue just nine days later, but managed to land safely.

Lockheed Martin had previously issued maintenance guidance in April 2024, warning that the problem could make it “difficult for the pilot to maintain control of the aircraft” in extreme cold weather, CNN added in its report.

CNN also mentioned that it has reached out to Lockheed Martin for comment.

The investigation report concluded that if the engineers on the call had referenced this bulletin, “they likely would have advised a planned full stop landing or a controlled ejection instead of a second touch-and-go” attempt. At the time of the crash, the temperature in Fairbanks was -1 degree Fahrenheit.

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