A Lockheed Martin F-35 jet crashed in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday morning, ejecting the pilot shortly after losing control of the aircraft on the ground.
Fox station KDFW in Dallas reported that the incident occurred around 10:15 a.m. at the Joint Naval Air Station Reserve Base in Fort Worth, which is shared with aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
An F-35 plane crashed at a Navy base in Fort Worth on Thursday, ejecting the pilot safely from the plane.
(Kitt Wilder, KDFW)
Kitt Wilder captured the incident on video, which shows the plane almost hovering, albeit slowly descending.
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The plane’s landing gear finally hits the ground before the plane bounces and the nose plunges into the ground.
The F-35B then went into a turn when the pilot was seen exiting the cockpit.
Very close view of an F-35 Lightning II
(iStock)
In an interview with KDFW after the crash, White Settlement Police Chief Chris Cook said his department responded after receiving multiple emergency calls for help.
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One call, he said, was from the Naval Air Station and the other from Lockheed Martin.
“The call was that a military plane had crashed at the base, it’s on the perimeter side of the fence, and that the pilot had ejected,” Cook said.
Despite the fact that the accident took place on federal land, local police were called in to control traffic on nearby roads as many people were stopping to see what was happening on the base.
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“We are aware of the crash of the F-35B on the shared runway at the Joint Naval Air Station Reserve Base in Fort Worth and understand that the pilot ejected successfully,” Lockheed Martin said in a statement. “Safety is our priority and we will follow the appropriate investigative protocol.”
According to Lockheed, the F-35 program has an “exceptional safety record” for such a complex global aircraft that spans 16 nations and three US military services.
To date, the F-35 fleet has flown more than 602,000 cumulative flight hours and Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 880 F-35s.
