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The US navy is racing to salvage an F-35C fighter jet from the underside of the South China Sea after it crashed on an plane service and plunged overboard – taking with it extremely labeled know-how that might be a coup if China retrieved it first.
The F-35C crashed-landed on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson throughout routine operations on Monday, the navy mentioned, injuring six sailors and the pilot, who ejected from the airplane earlier than it fell into the ocean.
Probably the most superior US fighter, a stealth airplane costing over $100m, is filled with extremely labeled know-how and if discovered would symbolize an intelligence boon for China, which claims virtually all the South China Sea as its personal territory. The Vinson was on a patrol supposed to problem that territorial declare and defend worldwide freedom of navigation.
The F-35C is a model of the airplane specifically designed to function from plane carriers. Maritime specialists have mentioned it might take a US salvage ship greater than 10 days to succeed in the positioning of the crash, probably giving Chinese language submarines the chance to search out it first.
“We’re actually aware of the worth of an F-35 in each respect of what worth means,” mentioned John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman. “And as we proceed to try restoration of the plane we’re going to do it clearly with security foremost in thoughts, however clearly our personal nationwide safety pursuits. And I feel I’ll simply depart it at that.”
In Beijing the overseas ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, mentioned the Chinese language authorities had no ambitions to search out the crashed airplane. “I famous related studies. This isn’t the primary time that the US has an accident within the South China Sea,” he mentioned.
“We’ve little interest in their plane. We urge the nation involved to do issues which are conducive to regional peace and stability, quite than flex muscle tissue within the area.”
In 2001, a closely broken American EP-3 surveillance airplane made a daredevil emergency touchdown on China’s Hainan island after a collision with a pursuing Chinese language fighter airplane. The fighter crashed and its pilot was killed.
The 24 crew of the EP-3, who had been fortunate to outlive the collision, had been detained and interrogated by Chinese language authorities earlier than their launch 10 days later. In the meantime, the Chinese language army stripped and examined the EP-3’s extremely labeled gear and intelligence supplies over a number of months – finally giving again the airplane in items.
It’s the third time an F-35 has crashed into the ocean and needed to be salvaged. In November a British F-35B, the brief takeoff and vertical touchdown model, crashed because it misplaced energy taking off from the plane service HMS Queen Elizabeth within the Mediterranean. The pilot ejected and the airplane was recovered from the seabed a number of weeks later.
In April 2019 a Japanese F-35A, the traditional takeoff and touchdown model, crashed at over 1,000km/h into the Pacific, leaving the pilot useless and solely particles to be recovered.
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