Fighter Lands Safely in 15 June LUF Incident

A U.S. Air Force spokesman set forth the service is investigating the cause of a June 2023 in-flight mechanical irregularity aboard one of its F-35A fighters.

The pilot of the stricken fifth-generation, Lockheed-Martin fighter jet opted to return to Arizona’s Luke Air Force Base (LUF) where he landed safely and stood by while USAF maintenance personnel attempted to troubleshoot the $80-million aircraft—so stated 56th Fighter Wing spokesman Sean Clements on Wednesday, 28 June.

Online flight tracking showed the F-35A pilot squawked 7700—in accordance with standard emergency procedure—at 13:10 MDT on Thursday, 15 June. The site tracked the aircraft as it executed several counterclockwise orbits over north-Phoenix in preparation for landing at LUF.

Clements reported: “When the malfunction didn’t remedy itself, the pilot returned the aircraft safely to the ground where the issue can be investigated more in-depth.” The perspicacity of Clements’s account speaks compellingly to the Air Force’s Aim High ethos.

The nature, extent, and manifestation of the abnormality by which the F-35A was afflicted remains unknown. The Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office has yet to respond to requests for further details pertaining to the incident.

It is known, however, that the aircraft in question has flown several times since the 15 June irregularity, to include a sortie to Fort Worth, Texas—site of the facility at which Lockheed-Martin assembles F-35 airframes.

The U.S. Air Force's 56th Fighter Wing trains more than one-hundred F-35 pilots annually and graduates some three-quarters of the world’s Joint Strike Fighter drivers. The USAF currently operates upwards of four-hundred F-35As. All told, the service intends to acquire more than 1,700 specimens of the fighter over the thirty-plus-year course of the $1.7-trillion program.

Per the Pentagon’s design goals, the F-35 is to function as one of the United States’ two premier strike aircraft—second only to the F-22 Raptor—through 2040.

FMI: www.af.mil