Pilot Ejects from F-35B Fighter After Hard Landing

A video of the incident showed the fighter hovering before landing, bouncing, then tipping over on its nose before the pilot ejected.

Kimberly Johnson

Thursday, December 15, 2022 at 06:02 PM ET

Verified

A F-35B, similar to the one pictured here, made a hard landing Thursday morning. [Credit: U.S. Marine Corps]

Key Takeaways:

An F-35B pilot performed an emergency ejection following a hard landing at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, which caused the fighter jet to bounce, tip over, and skid.
Video footage of the incident, which occurred shortly after 10:15 a.m. CST, showed the pilot successfully ejecting from the Lockheed Martin STOVL variant F-35B.
The crash was confined to military property, and while Lockheed Martin confirmed the pilot's successful ejection and initiated an investigation, the pilot's condition was not immediately disclosed.

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A F-35B pilot made an emergency ejection after the fighter jet made a hard landing Thursday morning at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas.

A video of the incident showed the short takeoff and vertical landing (STO/VL) variant fighter coming down for a landing, bouncing then tipping over on its nose and skidding around on its wing before the pilot ejected into the clear.