Originally Posted by
Auxtank
Yep. I'm going to put myself out there and say - cause; Mechanical Failure.
Just who's Mechanicals and bits, washers, oil seals, lock nuts, spinning bits and stuff - we'll probably never know.
But it's far too obvious that it was a bright red piece of foam with a "Remove Before Flight" flag hanging off it.
And I'm well acquainted with a certain Mister Murphy - who wrote his one and only Law.
$100M buys you an aircraft with a Checklist procedure you surely cannot screw up on.
I think you're going to feel rather silly when the releasable accident report comes out.
If it was mech failure (which it wasn't), why were all the F35s not grounded until the cause was known?
As for checklist procedures being screwed up, the cost of the system is irrelevant.