The United States military is searching for a plane that disappeared last Sunday after the pilot ejected. The impossibility of tracking it arouses equal parts astonishment and ridicule in a country that wonders how a fighter that costs 80 million dollars can be lost.
The Joint Base Charleston (JBC) has made a call on social networks for information about the F-35 that disappeared while flying over South Carolina (in the southeast of the country).
“Based on the last known position,” the search focuses on the vicinity of two large lakes north of Charleston (eastern South Carolina), suggesting it may have crashed.
The F-35 Lightning II is a highly coveted aircraft, especially by Ukraine, because its shape and characteristics prevent it from being detected by radar.
“We are still gathering information. The investigation is ongoing,” a spokesman for Joint Base Charleston told AFP. The pilot ejected for unknown reasons by parachute in a North Charleston neighborhood, leaving the plane flying in a “zombie state”, that is, on autopilot.
JBC spokesman Jeremy Huggins told the Washington Post that the plane’s transponder (a device that emits signals) was not working, making tracking difficult.
It is not the first time this has happened. In 1989, the pilot of a Soviet MiG-23 ejected while flying over Poland and the plane continued flying on autopilot until it crashed in Belgium, more than 900 kilometers away.
The disappearance of a plane that costs at least 80 million dollars filled the internet with stupefied comments. “How the hell do you lose an F-35? How is it possible that there is no tracking device and the public is being asked to find a plane and turn it over?” commented Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace.
Some Internet users published manipulated photographs with false wanted notices hanging on trees: “F-35 missing. $500 reward,” one of them reads.
Others mocked the situation, making fun of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been asking for this type of aircraft for months for the war he has been waging against Russia since Russian troops invaded his country.
