The United States Marine Corps completed its investigation into the 2023 F-35B crash in Williamsburg County last year attributing the incident primarily to pilot error.
Training, Training, TrainingâŚnuff said.
And maybe they should look into a $100M aircraft that has âcritical systemsâ that fail in a bit of rain. What systems failed? Did this happen at night?
Take a look at Ward Carrollâs You tube channel. Retired F-14 RIO, instructor and USNA teacher. Put out a long but detailed read-thru on the JAG report. Aircraft suffered a lightning strike which caused multiple 2-3 second dropouts and resets in the HMD(Helmet Mounted Display - F-35 has no HUD) and the Primary Cockpit Displays. The battery powered standby display worked fine, however he misinterpreted the display dropouts as a discompare with the standby instrument, believed he was in an out of control condition and decided to eject. However, while he was a high time aviator, he was low time (about 35 hours TT in the plane IIRC) and low in currency, about 6 hours and change in the previous 2 months.
I was still a novice in my Cessna 140 at 35 hours
Yes, agreed. ANY airplane can kill you if you donât abide by and respect itâs limitations, AND yours!
Imaâ put HUD in the F35 suggestion box. You lose your helmet display and you have nothing?
Thanks. This makes more sense now.
My mistake. Allow me to clarify. The HMD(Helmet Mounted Display) IS the HUD. There is a projector on the helmet that shows all the data a HUD(Heads Up Display) would on the inside of the pilotâs visor. This way the pilot can see their flight information all the time, while looking in any direction, not just straight ahead. This is in addition to displaying the âpictureâ from the DAS(Distributed Aperture System) a series of 6 (I believe) electro-optical cameras mounted on the aircraft. They are what allows the pilot to see âthruâ the aircraft at all times, in any direction, without having to maneuver. It acts kind of like the TADS(Target Aquisition and Designation System) in the AH-64 Apache where the crew looks in a direction and can see what their night vision âseesâ.
The Primary Cockpit Display is both a repeater of the flight data from the HMD and additional mission/systems data, such as weapons selection, fuel state, etc. Finally, just like in modern Transport Category aircraft, there is a battery powered standby flight display.
The pilot just had a really bad/unlucky day as we say in the sim.
Ward Carroll just posted a follow up to his original video IDâing the pilot and discussing the ensuing issues. Apparently the AMB found the pilot was not in violation of any directives or orders. No disciplinary action was recommended and he was returned to flight status. Apparently both the HMD and PMD were flickering in and out from a lightning strike and all he had left was a battery powered digital flight display as emergency backup which was mounted low below the panel. I am not IFR rated but from BFRâs can remember being Spatialy disoriented if I put my head down to a low level while turning and then straightening out. The pilot reported that he interpreted the backup to be malfunctioning along with the primary displays. Interesting that he was given command of the test and evaluation squadron in Yuma and then suddenly relieved of command by the Commandant 90 days later.
Yeah Dart, the follow up was geared more towards clearing up speculation over the who the pilot was. It was initially postulated that it was the Air Wing Commander, but it came out that a Deputy was the mishap pilot. The other bit of kerfuffle as you stated regards the FNAEB(Flying Naval Air Evaluation Board) was that they did say it was his error in âreadingâ the situation that lead to the aircraft loss. He never ducked accepting responsibility, and while permanently grounded he was cleared to resume operational duties, and was as you report assigned command of the Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron(VMX-1). Yet it took 9 months after the incident and 6 months after his return to duty and a new assignment for the Commandant of the Corps to override the Board and remove him from command.
As to the location of the Standby instrument, I place that as more of an issue with lack of experience (read TT) with aircraft as well as lack of currency. Other MIL high speed types have similar panel layouts in terms of locating emergency or standby instrumentation, F-16 comes to mind. Plus as a CFII, one of the things you need to learn is flying the plane from the right side while looking at the flight instruments on the left side of the panel. And in commercial service, we always cross check the standby display(usually mounted in the panel center) as well as the other pilotâs side displays to verify instrument integrity.
That makes more sense, thank you for the clarification. Gottaâ agree. He definitely had a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Yes, but some of them can barely kill you.
Maybe Bill. But I submit itâs like the old saying about pregnancy. There no such thing as being a âlittle bit deadâ (Monty Python not withstanding)! Plus, Martin-Baker donât make ejection seats for C-172âs. At least not yet!!! 
Yes, the pilot seriously screwed up by ejecting from a flyable aircraft⌠HOWEVER, some blame must go to the MULTIPLE MALFUNCTIONS that caused the pilot to even consider ejecting in the first place!
This isnât the first time multiple malfunctions have been reported on an F-35!
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