Pilot safely after F-35 Military Jet suffers ‘Significant Damage’ in accident at Alaska Base

Anchorage, Alaska (AP) -A American Air Force Pilot was reported to be safe after an F-35 fighter jet with a single seat crashed Tuesday during a training exercise at a base in Alaska.

The pilot experienced an “Inflight function error” but was able to push out of the plane, Colonel Paul Townsend, commander of the 354th Fighter wing, told a news conference. The plane crashed into the landing phase of the flight at Eielson Air Force Base, he said.

The pilot had declared an Inflight emergency ahead of the crash and was in stable state and was evaluated at a medical facility, he said.

The accident that occurred early Tuesday afternoon caused significant damage to the aircraft, the Air Force said in a statement.

Eielson Air Force Base is located about 40 kilometers south of Fairbanks.

Townsend said in the statement that the air defense would conduct “a thorough study in the hope of minimizing the chances of such occurrences happening again.”

Eielson was elected in 2016 to host 54 F-35S, which spewed an expansion that cost more than half a billion dollars to include 36 new buildings and dozens of housing units. The expansion included about 3,500 new Active Duty Airmen and their relatives.

With the ability to fly more than 12 hours at a time, the F-35 can reach almost everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere on a mission.

In May an F-35 fighter jet on the way from Texas to Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles crashed After the pilot stopped to refuel in New Mexico. The pilot was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

In October, a marine survey accused the pilot of an F-35 of pushing off the plane as he didn’t have to get fighter to fly unmanned for 11 minutes Before it crashed down In the Rural South Carolina in 2023.

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Associated Press Reporter Becky Bohrer contributed from Juneau, Alaska.