Marine Corps investigators blamed the pilot for the high-profile 2023 crash of an F-35B stealth fighter jet near Charleston, South Carolina, in which the plane continued to fly more than 60 miles after pilot ejection. (Kyle Baskin/U.S. Marine Corps)

Marine Corps investigators blamed the pilot for the high-profile crash of an F-35B stealth fighter jet last year near Charleston, South Carolina, in which the plane continued to fly more than 60 miles after the pilot ejected.

The pilot should have remained on the plane after experiencing electrical malfunctions as it approached its landing spot at Joint Base Charleston on September 17, 2023, according to an investigation dated January 18, 2024, but made public by the Marine Corps on Thursday. The F-35’s “advanced automatic flight control systems” allowed the plane to continue flying about 64 miles northeast onto private property near Hemmingway, South Carolina, where it remained untraceable for more than a day after his crash, the investigation concluded.

“The pilot misdiagnosed an uncontrolled flight emergency and ejected from a flight-capable aircraft, albeit during a heavy rainstorm compounded by aircraft electrical and display malfunctions,” they said. investigators wrote in the 111-page report.

Although the pilot was found to have been wrong to eject, investigators did not recommend any sanctions against the Marine in the case. The pilot’s commander agreed, according to service documents.

The pilot’s name and rank were redacted in the investigation report. Investigators found the pilot was “qualified and current” to fly the advanced aircraft and was “of sound mind and body” before the crash. The investigation described the pilot as a “highly experienced” aviator with more than 2,800 hours of flight time in the Marine Corps, primarily on the AV-8B Harrier jet. But the pilot had limited experience flying the F-35B, with about 32 hours flying that plane before the crash. The pilot was assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 501 of the 2nd Marine Air Wing.

The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. local time at Joint Base Charleston, shortly after the pilot began vertical landing procedures – a feature that allows the Navy version of the F-35B to land in the same way as a helicopter. After extending his landing gear and switching to vertical landing mode, the pilot reported that his helmet-mounted display, which provides flight information and date directly on a pilot’s helmet visor of F-35, had turned on and off at least twice.

The helmet’s display displayed “several warnings and warnings” before the landing attempt, the pilot reported. After the second instrument cutoff, the pilot “determined that a runway landing was not feasible” and returned the F-35 to normal flight mode, he told investigators. The display went dark again, leading the pilot to believe that the plane was out of control and that his ejection was necessary.

After the pilot ejected from the plane – eventually landing without major injury in a courtyard in a residential neighborhood about a mile from the base – the F-35 continued to fly for 11 minutes and 21 seconds before crashing. crashed in a dense forest approximately 64 nautical miles from the base. where the pilot ejected. The tower at Joint Base Charleston was initially able to track the plane, but lost radar contact with it after it had traveled about 23 nautical miles, according to the investigation.

With the plane missing, Navy officials launched a massive hunt for the plane, which included military assets and civilian law enforcement. The plane was not found until about 27 hours after the pilot’s ejection.

Investigators found that the F-35’s low flight path and stealthy characteristics likely contributed to the loss of contact between the tower at Joint Base Charleston and the jet. They found many factors, including loss of radar contact, “little or no fire” created during the crash, and the location of the crash site, deep in a dense forest, contributed. difficulties in finding the plane.

Even from the air, “the accident site was barely perceptible,” investigators wrote.

“The only part of the aircraft visible from the air was a large portion of the engine,” the report said.

Investigators credited search teams with finding the F-35 and cleaning up the debris in an environmentally friendly manner. The cleaning process took about a month.

No one was injured on the ground in the crash, but the Marines said it resulted in the loss of private “forest and crop lands.”

It also resulted in the loss of the F-35B, worth about $100 million, investigators wrote.