The U.S. Navy has launched a salvage operation in the South China Sea in an attempt to retrieve a F-35C that went down into the South China Sea during a “landing mishap” earlier this week.
“The U.S. Navy is making recovery operations arrangements for the F-35C aircraft involved in the mishap aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the South China Sea, Jan. 24,” 7th Fleet spokesperson Lt. Nicholas Lingo said in a statement.
The Navy pilot ejected from the F-35C Lightning II during the incident and was recovered from the water by a U.S. military helicopter, Lingo said. The pilot was listed as in stable condition.
The incident, which is now under investigation, occurred during routine flight operations involving a fighter jet assigned to the Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, according to the service.
Seven sailors on board the aircraft carrier were also injured in the incident, four who were treated onboard for their injuries and three who were listed as in stable condition after they were transported by a medevac flight to a medical facility in Manilla, Philippines.
The Navy did not provide information about the F-35C’s condition or status.
Recovering the remains of the advanced stealth fighter from international waters before other countries—namely China—potentially do so is a priority for the Navy, according to several observers.
The aircraft’s stealth technology make the wreckage and incident site a tempting target, retired Marine aviator Steve Ganyard told ABC News. “The race is on now to get the appropriate kind of recovery gear, the deep diving submersibles that actually pull the wreckage up off the bottom of the ocean,” he said.
China will likely try to find and survey the wreckage site through the use of submarines and deep diving submersibles, Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii, told CNN.
According to Schuster, China could potentially attempt to make a claim for the salvage rights based on its South China Sea territorial claims. “Salvaging the plane with commercial and coast guard assets will enable Beijing to claim it is recovering a potential environmental hazard or foreign military equipment from its territorial waters,” he told CNN.
Over the weekend, the Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Groups launched drills in the South China Sea, the U.S. 7th Fleet said Monday. During the exercise, ships and aircraft were to conduct coordinated surface and air operations.
Earlier this month, the USS Abraham Lincoln deployed with the Marine Corps’ first F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter squadron, and at the helm, the first female commander of a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
The F-35 landing mishap is the second reported in less than a month. A South Korean F-35A was forced into an emergency belly landing January 4 when its landing gear malfunctioned.
