On April 9, 2019, a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A Lightning II fighter jet crashes over Pacific. The Pilot of the fighter jet is still missing.
The aircraft disappeared from a flight of four F-35As at 19:27 pm (10:27 GMT) 135km (84 miles) east of Misawa, in north-eastern Japan. The F-35 disappeared about 28 minutes after take off.
The pilot of the doomed F-35A jet, 41-year-old Major Akinori Hosomi, who has not yet been found, reportedly had an impressive amount of experience as a pilot — over 3,200 hours of flight time. At the same time, however, Akinori was less familiar with the top American jets, which were only recently deployed in Japan, as he had only operated an F-35 for around 60 hours.
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The pilot of the Japanese F-35 that crashed into the Pacific Ocean called for the night training mission to be aborted shortly after takeoff. Shortly before it dropped off the radar, the pilot of the aircraft radioed the other three to say he was about to pull out of the drill, but none witnessed the plane crash, according to the ministry.
According to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A, stealth fighter did not send an emergency alert
The single-seat jet had a system that would have emitted distress signals if the pilot ejected from the cockpit with a parachute, the ASDF said.
Radar operators tracking the jet received a training abort message from the lost aircraft before it disappeared about 135 km (84 miles) east of the Misawa Airbase in Aomori around 7 pm. The fighter was flying with three other aircraft at a distance for an air-to-air combat exercise.
It is the first crash involving an F-35A aircraft worldwide.
