Ties in with their latest search pattern…


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More here:
Debris field found in search for missing F-35 in South Carolina, officials say (msn.com)

Hopefully the debris isn't just the canopy and associated parts....

Trying to adjust seat height with the Ejection handle 😉

Further to the above, what would cause a pilot to engage autopilot, disengage transponder, lose his wingman and then depart a stable flight mode aircraft ?
As for stealth fighter lost to radar - you couldn't make it up.

Any Red Gear in the wreckage

It’s been a while but I seem to recall that activation of the ejector seat turns the transponder on with an emergency squark in most modern aircraft.

Well he certainly achieved a transient increase in his height after pulling the handle.

Apart from the initial statement that the aircraft had suffered a mishap, I've seen nothing to suggest there was any declared issue with the aircraft that would have necessitated ejection. I'm assuming that the latest all singing and dancing seat would not be able to be triggered accidentally in the way that the late Taylor Scott's GR5 seat was believed to have been. Activation of the auto pilot might have been to allow the pilot to do/recover something which then didn’t go as intended.

Must be turn offable though. You wouldn't want the enemy finding you or your aircraft.

Yes, that was it and he recounted the same tale to me in person in the RAF Woodvale bar!

I thought so to. I think it was called Auto tone but Google is not my friend. If the system worked through the Transponder and it was switched off / not working, that might explain the search.

Maybe it's just me, but if I were to design a stealth aircraft, I would never include a feature that automatically turns on the transponder. ;)

:D - if true, probably one of the worst possibly design "features" for the F35B!

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...sponse-emerges

“He Just Lost It In The Weather” – Audio From F-35 Crash Response Emerges

Video of the crash site and radio calls made shortly after the F-35 pilot ejected add new color to this developing story.

…X user @ChrisJacksonSC separately shared a recording of local emergency services personnel responding to the incident after the pilot of the doomed F-35B had parachuted down to the ground.

"He's unsure of where his plane crashed," the dispatcher can be heard saying at one point. "Said he just lost it in the weather."

It's unclear whether or not this means that weather was a factor in the incident or that the pilot had simply lost sight of the aircraft as it flew on due to clouds or other ambient conditions. Available weather data does show there was scattered rain in Charleston and areas to the northwest around the time of the mishap.…

Not necessarily. Who exactly would be skin painting this flight of two? Air Traffic Control would be looking at a transponder and if it was the wing-man who ejected and if he/she had the transponder turned off (which would be normal) then unless they were attacking a defended military position, it is unlikely that any agency would be skin painting the aircraft as it continued to fly for whatever reason.

A 767is far from stealth, but turn off the transponder and you disappear for all practical purposes if we're talking about non combat normal commercial aviation. Skin painting is not completely gone just yet, but certainly most of the airborne air traffic is not controlled using conventional (or should I say old fashioned) skin paint radar.

This isn't the first time someone shucked out of a flyable aircraft which continued on it's own, but none of the instances I know about up to now resulted in losing track of the pilot-less aircraft. But don't forget that the United States Marine Corps is credited with a number of aviation "firsts" and not all of them resulted in the Corps being covered in glory. I'm thinking about an F-8 Crusader taking off with the wings folded back in the day.

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Must be something about Naval Aviation....besides the use of folding wing aircraft.

How does one "launch" an aircraft from a Carrrier with all of the procedures that are in place to ensure each aircraft is airworthy and has its correct weight confirmed before the Cat Shot?

Wonder if there was a failure in the automatic ejection system - not now Hal. ;)

The third F-14 prototype (BuNo 157982) with its wings swept asymmetrically: with the starboard wing locked fully forward and the port wing swept fully aft.

To reduce deck spotting area its wings could be “overswept” to 75°, eliminating the need for the folding mechanism of the wings. However in this photo the wings position is the result of tests undertaken to explore how the Tomcat could return back to the carrier with this asymmetric configuration.

Six flights were made between Dec. 19 1985 and Feb. 28, 1986 in this unusual configuration and landings were conducted with the aft-swept wing at up to 60°. These trials were conducted after four fleet aircraft found themselves in this difficult situation.


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F-4 checklist from: https://www.docdroid.com/Q8a6shx/f-4...ght-manual-pdf (27Mb)
",,,the locking mechanism was not properly set before launch,,," Story here: These photos prove F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat could take off and land with folded wings - The Aviationist

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Expert witness report on the crash….. 😎😎

I presume none of the four stricken squadron F-14s had to/managed to land aboard a carrier?