RAF pilot forced to eject as £100m jet ditches in the Med
Rescue team pulls airman from sea
A BRITISH pilot ejected from a stricken £100million warplane over the Mediterranean Sea yesterday.
He was part of the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike force, practising for military operations.
An emergency search-rescue operation from HMS QE pulled the pilot from the sea and took him back to the ship.
The pilot was last night recovering and “speaking to other crew members” following the 10am crash.
It is believed he has had a medical checkup but is not in the ship’s hospital.
Sources told the Daily Mirror the pilot was rescued by “assets launching from HMS Queen Elizabeth” which means he was probably plucked from the waves by a Merlin helicopter crew.
Another large-scale operation was under way last night to recover parts of the hi-tech plane. Top brass feared parts falling into “enemy or hostile state hands,” after the crash, sources said.
An MoD spokesman said last night: “A British F35 pilot from HMS Queen Elizabeth ejected during routine flying operations in the Mediterranean this morning. The pilot has been safely returned to the ship and an investigation has begun, so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
The Mirror understands no other vessels were involved in the incident.
It is believed the F-35B fighter jet, one of the world’s deadliest warplanes, was totally destroyed after hitting the sea. There were 18 F-35B jets on the £3.5billion Queen Elizabeth, 10 of them US Marine Corps planes and eight from the RAF’s 617 Squadron – aka the Dambusters.
The aircraft carrier is the UK’s biggest ever warship. Her sister carrier the HMS Prince of Wales is undergoing sea trials.
At the time of the plane crash HMS Queen Elizabeth was in the Eastern Mediterranean, on the way back to the UK from the China Sea. This is the carrier’s first major mission. It is not known how far the plane was from the ship when it ran into trouble.
Another source told the Mirror other F-35B flights from RAF Marham in Norfolk are not being suspended.
Pilot has been safely returned to the ship and a probe has begun
MoD SPOKESMAN ON JET CRASH IN MED SEA