Dirty hydraulic fluid and freezing weather led to the loss of an F-35 stealth fighter in Alaska this winter when its landing gear froze and convinced the aircraft’s computer that it was on the ground rather than in-flight.
The pilot lost control of the aircraft, ejected, and walked to an ambulance under his own power, but tail number 19-5535 was not so lucky, spinning wingtip over wingtip before crashing on the airfield in a fireball that was captured on video and posted to social media.
On Aug. 25, the Air Force released its investigation into the Jan. 28 crash, a total loss valued at $196.5 million, according to the report.
The temperature was about zero degrees Fahrenheit when the F-35 taxied out of its weather shelter for an air-to-air combat training sortie at about 10:42 a.m. local time. The pilot was an old hand with nearly 1,700 flight hours on the A-10 attack jet and 555 hours on the F-35. The first 40 minutes of this mission were spent on the ground waiting for the five other F-35s in the sortie to troubleshoot minor issues after engine start.
That 40 minutes gave the water-logged hydraulic fluid coursing through tail number 19-5535’s nose landing gear time to freeze, which was why things went awry shortly after takeoff at 11:22 p.m. The nose landing gear did not retract properly, and when the pilot tried extending the gear back out, the wheel itself was canted to the left, since the lack of full extension caused a misalignment that prevented the wheel from locking into place.
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