Japan's defense ministry announced on Wednesday that its air force F-35 stealth fighter crashed in the Pacific Ocean while on a night training flight. According to the ministry's report, parts of the jets were recovered but its pilot is still missing.
On Tuesday, Japan's military said that they lost contact with the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters flying in the part of the Pacific Ocean close to northern Japan.
The F35A stealth jet was flying off the eastern coast of Aomori when it disappeared from the radar. The Air Self-Defense Force said that parts of the jet were found late Tuesday. The jet disappeared about half an hour after its take off with other F35As from the Misawa airbase. The Air Self Defense Force said that the advanced single-seat jet was last contacted flying 135 kilometers east of the airbase in Aomori Prefecture at about 7:27 p.m. Tuesday night when they lost it in the radar.
According to Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, the reason for the jets crush is still unknown. He said that they halted the flight of the other 12 F-35s after the incident. Iwaya said that the pilot of the jet is in his 40s. In the statement of the military, they said that they are launching a search for the missing pilot.
The F-35s were purchased from the United States and Japan started to deploy the jets in 2018 as part of its plan to strengthen its defense spending and weapons capability in the coming years as a countermeasure to the potential threats from China and North Korea.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government aims to purchase 147 F-35s, includes 105 F-35As, which costs more or less 10 billion yen each. The funding on defense is under the guidelines approved in December.
The Pentagon said that they are monitoring the situation. It is the second crash incident where an F-35 was involved since its first flight two decades ago. It is the first recorded crash of the A model of fighter jet series. The F-35s was designed to penetrate enemy territories by evading radar detection.
The first incident of the F-35 crash involves a United States military short take-off and landing (STOVL) F-35B near the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina in September. The Lockheed Martin F35 model had a C version designed to take-off from carriers.
Japan's newly purchased F35s included 18 STOVL B variants that they want to deploy on its territory along the edge of the East China Sea.
