An F-35 taking off
A military aircraft crashed off the airfield on Tuesday (20th May, 2024) afternoon at the Albuquerque International Sunport in New Mexico after a refueling stop at Kirtland Air Force Base. The pilot, who was the only occupant in the flight, managed to eject but suffered several injuries as per fire rescue and airport officials. At the site, two civilians were also assessed but neither was taken to the hospital.
About the aircraft
The aircraft was a developmental version of the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter jet. It was being transferred from a Lockheed Martin factory to be handed over to the service and a Defense Contract Management Agency pilot was flying the aircraft. It had just taken off from Albuquerque and was en route to Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.
Albuquerque Airport from where the F-35, which was later to crash had taken off.
A spokesperson for Kirtland Air Force Base said in a statement that an Airforce pilot was “ferrying” the aircraft from the Lockheed Martin facility at Naval Air Reserve Station in Fort Worth, Texas, to Edwards AFB. The pilot had landed at around 1 pm local time to refuel and had just taken off for Edwards AFB when the crash occurred. The fighter jet crashed and ruptured into flames just before 2 pm. According to a press release from Kirtland Air Force Base, the pilot was reported to be in a stable condition as of Tuesday evening.
Exceptional work from fire-fighters
Albuquerque Fire Rescue and Bernalillo County firefighters fought the fire, but they required support from Kirtland Airforce Base as well. Lt. Jason Fejer, a spokesperson for AFR said that they could not compete with such a large-scale fuel burn with the 500 gallons of water they had. But the fire crew had the situation under control within hours. However, the area needed to be closed to clean the debris. Albuquerque’s Mayor Tim Keller praised the first responders for their rapid action at the scene and prayed for the pilot via social media.
Disturbance in flight Operations and Roadways
Flight operations were hampered for some hours and resumed normally after some time. But the airport authority asked the passengers to check their flight status with the airline. The airport authority on Wednesday morning circulated the news stating:
“Area of Rio Brave and University will be closed, and the drivers should avoid the area for the next 24 hours”
on what was previously called Twitter.
Accident leaves question on Lockheed Martin
After the accident, Lockheed Martin said in a statement,
” Safety is our priority, and we will follow appropriate investigation protocol”.
Investigation regarding the accident is going on.
Lockheed Martin has developed some experimental aircraft over the years. The photograph shows the headquarters of the office of this aerospace giant.
The total price tag for the Lockheed Martin F-35 project has topped $2 trillion, making it the largest and most expensive military acquisition program in history. Despite such a huge investment, the accident of an aircraft worth $145 M has started bringing renewed attention to the safety standards of the aircraft because the F-35 has had over ten crashes in eight years since the year 2016. For this reason, Lockheed Martin has been criticized on the issues of reliability, maintainability and availability all over the internet for the past couple of days.