‘We’ve got a pilot in the house ... He landed in my backyard.’ Hear F-35 crash 911 call
Audio of a 911 call captures the oddly calm aftermath of a Beaufort-based Marine who ejected from an F-35B Lightning II fighter jet during an unexplained “mishap” Sunday afternoon, as a North Charleston resident explained to a dumbfounded dispatcher that the pilot had parachuted into his backyard.
“We got a pilot in the house, and I guess he landed in my backyard, and we’re trying to see if we could get an ambulance to the house, please,” the caller is heard saying in the 911 recording obtained by the Associated Press.
The unidentified 47-year-old pilot from the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in Beaufort said he felt “OK” with some back pains after parachuting from an estimated 2,000 feet above the ground. He had ejected and landed near Joint Base Charleston, an air base shared by the Air Force and U.S. Navy.
The Marine’s $135 million advanced aircraft wasn’t as easily located. As designed, the jet remained in a level flight but erased “all secure communications” following the pilot’s ejection in order to protect the plane’s classified systems, the Marines said in a statement. Officials found a debris field with the jet’s wreckage over a day later in rural Williamsburg County, about two hours northeast of Charleston.
“Ma’am, a military jet crashed. I’m the pilot. We need to get rescue rolling,” the pilot told the 911 dispatcher. “I’m not sure where the airplane is. It would have crash landed somewhere. I ejected.”
MCAS Beaufort is leading the investigation of the incident, commanding officer Col. Mark D. Bortnem told reporters in a telecom conference Tuesday, adding that the F-35B’s “really good safety record” was seen in action Sunday afternoon.
“The good news is it appeared to work as advertised,” the Marines’ statement continued. “The other bit of silver lining in this case is that through the F-35 flying away it avoided crashing into a densely populated area surrounding the airport, and fortunately crashed into an empty field and forested area.”
The crash was the Marines’ third incident in the last six weeks classified as a “Class A” mishap, entailing damages totaling at least $2.5 million or complete destruction of a Department of Defense aircraft.
In late August, Beaufort-based pilot Maj. Andrew Mettler, known as “Simple Jack,” was killed when the F/A-18D Hornet combat jet he was piloting crashed during a training flight. Just three days later, three Marines were killed and another was critically injured when a V-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft crashed with 23 people aboard during a training drill in Australia.
Officials have not yet disclosed the “mishap” that forced the pilot to eject, although the military regards a mishap to be any incident that “results in death, injury, illness or property damage.” When an F-35 crashed on Little Barnwell island near MCAS Beaufort in September 2018 — the first time the new fighter jet model had crashed — the incident was identified as a Class A mishap.
This story was originally published September 22, 2023 at 11:40 AM.
