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Report: New Japanese F-35s made seven emergency landings leading up to crash in the Pacific

Report: new Japanese F-35s made seven emergency landings leading up to crash in the Pacific ·

The search continues for a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-35A that went down off the coast of Honshu in northeast Japan last Tuesday. The pilot, Maj. Akinori Hosomi, remains missing.

Days after the Joint Strike fighter went missing on Japanese radar, bits of wreckage were found in the Pacific, confirming reports the aircraft crashed, but offering little evidence as to why. Now, a report published by the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun claims that Japan’s small fleet of F-35s experienced a number of issues—resulting in no fewer than seven emergency landings by five aircraft in recent months.

The country received a total of 13 F-35s thus far, with five experiencing in-flight emergencies that forced immediate landings. Despite reports painting this as an American failure, four of these five jets underwent final assembly not in American-based Lockheed Martin production facilities, but rather on Japanese soil by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The F-35A that went down last Tuesday was also among the first jets assembled by Mitsubishi.

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  • Avatar
    Chad D

    In my opinion the F-35 is a colossal waste of money and resources. We should cut our loses and take the tech we’ve learned and start from scratch with a new aircraft. The F-22 dominates the Air-to-Air arena so no need to invest there. Focus on a new aircraft to take the Air-to-Ground role. The powers that be have invested too much into the whole multi role, capable of anything aircraft. The F-35 tries to do too much and so it fails. This time it’s cost the life of an allied pilot.

  • Avatar
    Max H

    I agree, but I also remember when the Osprey’s went down every week in Yuma or F-16s went down at Luke (at least it felt that way to my young self)…one is too many, but it is also the story of demanding a person defeat gravity. It sucks, but that’s the price…I hate it.

  • Avatar
    Mason

    Alex, only two lost, but lets not forget the 160 that will never be combat effective, so for me, the tally is far higher, and now we lost an aviator. I think that there are folks responsible for the loss of such a fine aviator as Hosomi, whether it is LM, Mitsubishi, or air frame flaws that are still showing up as reduced longevity, which still ties back to LM and flawed/rushed testing. It goes back to a statement Geo made in another post, how expensive does it have to get? How many body bags stacked up before it becomes too expensive? I hope this is an aberration.

  • Avatar
    CJR

    Uh oh.