An F-35 at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska tumbled and crashed in January after its automatic systems wrongly sensed a ground landing. Ice buildup in the nose landing gear caused sensors to indicate the aircraft had landed while still airborne, rendering the jet uncontrollable. Contaminated hydraulic fluid from a mishandled barrel introduced water that froze after takeoff, jamming the front landing gear and tilting the aircraft left. The pilot followed emergency checklists, consulted Lockheed Martin engineers and supervisors, flew about 50 minutes and attempted two touch-and-go landings, then ejected safely before impact. The aircraft was destroyed with a $196.5 million loss; the pilot sustained minor injuries.
Footage of the January incident at Alaska's Eielson Air Force base showed the jet tumbling downwards in the sky and hitting the ground, causing a fireball. A new report released this week by the Air Force Aircraft Accident Investigation Board found that the ice in the landing gear caused the fighter's automatic systems to wrongly assume that it had landed even though it was still in the air, making the aircraft "uncontrollable."
Investigators found the crash traced back to contaminated hydraulic fluid. The 355th Fighter Generation Squadron hadn't followed the rules for handling fluid barrels, and the jet was refueled from one that contained a large amount of water. That water froze after takeoff, stopping the front landing gear from working properly. Instead of retracting, the gear jammed, tilting the aircraft to the left and setting off the chain of failures that caused the crash.
The pilot went through initial emergency checklists and then had a call with engineers at Lockheed Martin, the jet's manufacturer, and the on-duty supervisor of flying, to come up with a plan. The pilot flew for around 50 minutes while they tried to find a solution on the call and then did two touch-and-go landings to try to center the nose landing gear. Both failed to recenter it.
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