According to the British "Daily Mail" reported on the 8th, the wreckage of the British F-35B fighter that fell into the Mediterranean Sea has been salvaged out of the water.
The aircraft, which is worth more than £100 million, was successfully recovered after a seven-day salvage operation by british, Italian and US vessels. British defence sources said they were "convinced" that the sensitive equipment on the F-35B was not dangerous or damaged.
It is understood that the F-35B fighter, equipped with a highly sophisticated radar and sensor system, crashed into the sea on November 17 during takeoff from the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth in the eastern Mediterranean, and eventually sank to the bottom of the sea more than a mile (about 1600 meters) below the surface, but the British Ministry of Defense did not disclose its specific location.
The F-35B took off from the Queen Elizabeth. Source: Uk. Ministry of Defence
It's unclear exactly why the crash was, but investigators suspect it could be because the F-35B's rain cover in the engine intake was not removed when it took off. British officials believe the rain cover was sucked into the engine when the stealth plane took off from the carrier's flight deck.
British defence sources were reportedly "pleasantly surprised by the speed at which [the wreckage] was recovered", with stormy weather making the operation to salvage F-35B wreckage particularly challenging.
The recovered F-35B wreckage will be transported to a naval base in the Mediterranean. Sources said the location of the base was sensitive and only confirmed that it belonged to a "british ally".
The Queen Elizabeth is aboard the F-35B fighter. Source: U.S. Marine Corps
Information on the recovery of the wreckage of the F-35B was also closely guarded, with the British Ministry of Defence revealing only that the operation involved a U.S. deep-sea salvage vessel and a vessel chartered from Italy. The British Ministry of Defence said in a statement: "The recovery of the British F-35 in the Mediterranean has been successfully concluded and we thank our NATO ally Italy and the United States for their support in the recovery operation." ”
According to the Times, all the wreckage of the plane has been recovered, and its sources say the crashing fighter did not disintegrate.
Meanwhile, the U.K.'s Defence Security Agency has launched an investigation into the crash, and an aircraft carrier sailor was arrested for leaking video of the crash site.
F-35B fighter on the flight deck of the Queen Elizabeth. Source: British Navy
It is reported that on November 29, a video showing the moment of the F-35B crash spread online, through which it can be seen that the F-35B fighter glided off the flight deck at a very slow speed, suspected of lacking enough thrust to reach the required take-off speed to leave the ship, but fell directly from the end of the skid-jump take-off deck and disappeared into the camera. The pilots catapulted to escape when the plane fell.