US F-35 pilot ejects safely after 50 minute airborne conference as plane crashes on runway shortly after

PTC News Desk: A US Air Force F-35 pilot ejected safely after spending almost 50 minutes over an airborne conference call with engineers in an attempt to fix malfunction before the aircraft crashed onto an Alaska runway.

The video of the aircraft crashing is doing rounds on social media showing the jet spiraling towards the runway before bursting into flames.

An Air Force probe concluded that ice buildup in the hydraulic lines of the F-35’s nose and main landing gears stopped them from functioning correctly, CNN reported.

Shortly after takeoff, the pilot was unable to fully retract the landing gear. When he lowered it again, the nose wheel locked at a left angle and failed to realign, the report said.

Multiple attempts to resolve the issue caused the jet’s systems to misinterpret its condition, making it “behave as if it were on the ground while airborne,” which eventually forced the pilot to eject. Before that, he went through checklists and even joined a 50-minute live call with five Lockheed Martin engineers—including a senior software expert, a flight safety engineer, and three landing gear specialists—as the aircraft circled the base.

The pilot also tried two “touch and go” landings to straighten the jammed nose gear, but those efforts instead caused the main landing gears to seize and fail to extend completely. With the sensors indicating the jet was on the ground, its computers switched to “automated ground-operation mode,” rendering it uncontrollable, the report noted.

A post-crash examination revealed that roughly one-third of the hydraulic fluid in the nose and right main landing gear systems was actually water—where no water should have been present.