Crashed F-35A fighter had problems twice in past

April 12, 2019

Tokyo--A Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-35A fighter jet that crashed into the Pacific Ocean earlier this week had made two emergency landings after experiencing problems, it was learned Friday.

It has not been determined whether there is any link between the two events and the crash, according to informed sources.

Only one case of trouble has been reported for the 12 other F-35A jets deployed in Japan. The country started deploying the cutting-edge stealth jets in January last year.

All three cases involved jets manufactured in Japan.

According to the Defense Ministry, the crashed jet, the first Japanese-made F-35A unit, made an emergency landing at Nagoya Airport, run by the Aichi prefectural government in central Japan, in June 2017.

This happened after a malfunction was found in the aircraft's cooling system during a test flight.

After the jet was deployed at the ASDF's Misawa base in the northeastern prefecture of Aomori, it made another emergency landing at the ASDF's Chitose base in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, in August 2018 due to trouble in its equipment.

In both cases, the jet resumed its flight after problem parts were replaced.

The jet had flown some 280 hours in total before the crash.

The remaining case, which happened in April last year, involved the fourth Japanese-made unit.

It made an emergency landing at Nagoya Airport during a test flight after a light flashed to indicate that the aircraft's windshield was not locked. A glitch in the light was later confirmed.

Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told a press conference that the ministry has halted flights of the remaining 12 F-35A jets and of other Japanese-made F-35As that are in trials.

According to Iwaya, nine domestically manufactured F-35A jets have been delivered so far to the ministry and 21 more are to be manufactured in the country.

He stressed that the ministry will not change for now its plans for acquiring and deploying the jets, which were decided at the end of 2018.

Under the plans, the ministry hopes to introduce a total of 147 F-35As, designed for air forces, and F-35Bs, for marines, to Japan.

"We'd like, first of all, to conduct a thorough investigation and put all our efforts into determining the cause" of the crash, Iwaya said.

He emphasized hopes that the ministry will recover the jet from the ocean floor.

Pieces from the crashed jet's tail had been newly found by Friday, in addition to the tail fragments discovered on the day of the incident. The Maritime SDF has started an underwater search. Jiji Press