CA: Yikes, F-35B and KC-130 collide, everybody lived
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2020 9:29 am
...not so much the airframes.
F-35B pilot ejected and was recovered, being treated for injuries, his plane crashed in desert near Salton Sea.
KC-130 ended up landing in a farm field near an airport, all 8 onboard survived.
Pictures of KC-130 show it's basically intact, but all propeller blades are missing from engines 3 and 4 (right wing), and at least one propeller blade is missing from engine 1 (outboard left wing). I wonder how many of those blades went AWOL as part of the mid-air, and how many from landing in the dirt? Yikes again.
Some news reports say the F-35B pilot and co-pilot ejected safely. All F-35 variants are single seaters, so unless it was R2D2, no copilot was involved on that airframe.
https://theaviationist.com/2020/09/30/m ... crew-safe/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/military-jet ... -refueling
Audio of the event (at least for the KC-130):
F-35B pilot ejected and was recovered, being treated for injuries, his plane crashed in desert near Salton Sea.
KC-130 ended up landing in a farm field near an airport, all 8 onboard survived.
Pictures of KC-130 show it's basically intact, but all propeller blades are missing from engines 3 and 4 (right wing), and at least one propeller blade is missing from engine 1 (outboard left wing). I wonder how many of those blades went AWOL as part of the mid-air, and how many from landing in the dirt? Yikes again.
Some news reports say the F-35B pilot and co-pilot ejected safely. All F-35 variants are single seaters, so unless it was R2D2, no copilot was involved on that airframe.
https://theaviationist.com/2020/09/30/m ... crew-safe/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/military-jet ... -refueling
Audio of the event (at least for the KC-130):