Japanese F-35 crash
 

Sad to see this in the news today. We spent a week at Misawa AFB in November last year where my son in law is a survival school instructor attached to one of the US fighter squadron's.

We met some great folks including some of the Japanese airmen and were treated to daily air shows as they went through various training flights. I hope they can rescue the pilot. We were given a briefing while there about the mission at Misawa and the looming threat of the Chinese military build up. Scary stuff.

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/10/711693546/pieces-of-missing-japanese-f-35-fighter-jet-found-pilot-still-missing-after-cras

Wow. I hope they find the pilot.

I lived in Misawa twice as a kid. 1978-1980 and again from 1983-1985. Things have changed a lot since I was there, but I loved it and would love to go back.

Horrible news. Chances of finding the pilot diminish with every hour, of course. It's been long enough that I don't think they are looking for a surviving pilot anymore.

This program has sure had more than its share of problems. The article is a bit misleading in that is says its in its second decade of service - it first flew in 2006 or so, but was not put into service until at least 2015, if not later. Nine years after first flight to "service ready". That says plenty about its problems right there.

I've spent an awful lot of time at the MHI facility in Nagoya. We were performing heavy maintenance and modifications to Japanese Air Force 767 AWACS airplanes. Great people, top notch facility - I'm sure their F35's are at least the measure of Lockheed's own.

I bet we never hear what happened.

I was thinking it but didn't want to say it. I assume that if the pilot is alive, it shouldn't be that tough to find him.

In my experience, the Japanese are meticulous and do things just about as well as they can be done.

In a way. They are the world's best copy-cats, completely lacking in innovation, individual thought, or any sort of risk taking. It takes a dozen of them to arrive at a decision, then they have to agree on it a dozen times, and get approval from another dozen people. Working with them is a "group-think" nightmare. They are afraid of their own shadows.

As such, I'm sure their F35 is exactly per Lockheed's specs, every flaw included. They are taught not to question. They are the most frustrating people I have ever worked with.

In this context, if there was a glaring flaw with Lockheed's, it was exactly reproduced in their's and perfected in its inadequacy. Like I said, theirs was no doubt the full measure of Lockheed's. For better or for worse.

That's insanely scary. I hope they could recover the missing pilot.

Yep, exactly. I believe there's a saying that says something like "the nail that stands out gets hammered down"