Royal Navy recovered the F-35 wreckage before anyone got to it, salvaging of the sunken aircraft was done by dredging on the seafloor.
Loss of the jet set off a frantic search to recover the top-secret stealth plane that sufferer a take-off mishap. The location of the missing jet was in an area that Russians were well acquainted with, good thing it did not fall into Russian hands that would be a tech bonanza. It did not help that the planes cost £100million each.
F-35 wreckage was supposed to be top secret
This incident reached the papers because the HMS Queen Elizabeth crewman was taken into custody when he posted a video of the accident on social media, which alarmed military leaders, reported the Sun UK.
A month ago, the botched take-off had an F-35 Lightning II plummeting in the Mediterranean after getting airborne from the ramp jump soon after, and it was a mad dash to find the wreck in an international search to stop the possible recovery other than NATO or US units.
The Russian federation's looming fear of snatch and grab is possible with the submarine technology possessed, and the location is said to be accessible as well. Footage from a camera on Queen Elizabeth had captured the pilot ejecting the last second when the F-35 had failed to take off after it fell off the ramp, cited the Daily Mail.
Ejecting just of the apex of the ramp, the pilot had his parachute got caught on the ship's side. Before this revelation, a search found the pilot but not the exact period. The F-35 wreckage recovered by Royal Navy is in custody after a frantic search.
Royal Navy recovers wreckage
The British Ministry of Defense stated that the search in the Mediterranean Sea had ended after a successful search for the top-secret plane, noted the Telegraph.
US Navy specialists from the 6th Fleet HQ located in Rota Spain, a deep-sea recovery/ salvage ship equipped with deep-sea vehicle technology, were the search's lead ship.
One defense source stated that from the time of the accidental crash and ejection of the aviator, it took approximately two weeks to spot the wreck, with another week to haul it from over under a mile under the sea.
Due to the sensitive nature of technology embedded in the airframe, the Italian navy joined the international search to salvage it fast. But, during the search, participants were beset by rough seas, making it more challenging.
A male crew member was apprehended this week and taken off the ship to a UK base, said the UK Defence Journal.
Officials remarked that the plane had intact components, and nothing was compromised. One of the reasons for the failure to take off is due to a rain cover that was left negligently that was sucked into the engine, causing a malfunction. The pilot cut out his harness and was taken from the water after bailing out by a rescue helicopter.
HMS Queen Elizabeth was pushing forward the accident happened and sailed past the crash spot when the plane crashed into the sea, losing one of the F-35s has only 23 planes onboard.
A charter ship has the remains of the F-35 and sailing to an undisclosed port, then airlifted by the RAF to the UK. Reports of the F-35 Wreckage recovered by the Royal Navy and its whereabouts are not revealed until the UK gets it back.
