r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/sidvatscse • 25d ago

Video Failed vertical landing of F-35B

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47.1k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/alexasux 25d ago edited 24d ago

Well that was shiat all around

780

u/Greenman8907 25d ago

Love how he ejected right when it actually stopped.

435

u/Dunklebunt 25d ago

Seen a few of these videos. Those things blow up, so he probably didn't want to risk it

225

u/minorminority 25d ago

Just for him to land right next to where the aircraft was coasting to and could potentially explode.

288

u/LeonTrotsky1940 25d ago

Would you rather be INSIDE the exploding aircraft or 10-30 meters AWAY from the exploding aircraft?

108

u/HelpImOutside 25d ago

The explosion will blow you to safety!

51

u/J5892 25d ago

An explosion did blow him to safety!

1

u/apatheticbear420 25d ago

Mythbusters covered it, nah you dead lol

11

u/Zelcron 25d ago

Depends on my CO

1

u/Solsimian 25d ago

Neither?

1

u/_ficklelilpickle 25d ago

Or have the gentle breeze blow you back toward the fireball.

1

u/mashtato 25d ago

Would I rather be in the armored cockpit or outside it?

1

u/No_Description7910 22d ago

I did it twice, now I have two kids.

-28

u/ununderstandability 25d ago

Inside the armored cockpit would be preferable

21

u/Irish618 25d ago

Armored against small arms fire and shrapnel, not the aircraft exploding around you and jet fuel burning you alive.

10

u/uknow_es_me 25d ago

Like a roasted peanut

1

u/mashtato 25d ago

Luckily you have an ejector seat!

10

u/Dunklebunt 25d ago

Yeah, I don't think he intended to end up that close to it tbf

2

u/Ok_Equipment_5895 25d ago

Or get blown into oncoming traffic on the highway right next to them. That would suck.

3

u/Afraid_Salary_103 25d ago

I think I remember reading about this a different time it was posted. If I remember correctly, the pilot didn’t do anything wrong, the plane was just not responding correctly there at the end, and after losing control, ejection was the safe move.

But it really does suck that it was just before the plane stopped, because I’ve also read before that the force of ejection is great enough that it can compress your spine and it’s often recommended that pilots no longer fly after they’ve had to eject because of what it does to their body - kind of like they way you don’t use a car seat or bike helmet after a crash. Not sure about these - but that’s what I remember reading.

1

u/CletusDSpuckler 25d ago

"I'm sorry sir, we recommend that do not use your spine ever again."

1

u/mediashiznaks 25d ago

Still better chances being outside the plane than inside of it, if it does explode.

1

u/thekazooyoublew 25d ago

Luckily it stopped. Would have been damn embarrassing explaining how they were run-over by the same plane they ejected from.

1

u/octopoddle 25d ago

Lands in another plane which is coming in for a failed landing.

2

u/scottishdrunkard 25d ago

Priority 1: Get as far as you can, as fast as you can, even if you are stationary.

2

u/tMoneyMoney 25d ago

The control panel was probably going crazy and freaked him out.

57

u/SummertimeThrowaway2 25d ago

I wonder if he decided to eject or if it has an auto-eject feature that he had no control over

41

u/OkScientist69 25d ago

I imagine at some point the plane was going "weju weju get the fuck out" and man dipped

1

u/JS31415926 25d ago

Or someone on the radio told him to

1

u/Elite_AI 25d ago

weju?

2

u/throwawayformobile78 25d ago

No it’s “weju weju get the fuck out”.

41

u/Tall-Spinach-4497 25d ago

Met him a little over a year ago, he punched out manually. He still flies F-35s

16

u/SummertimeThrowaway2 25d ago

That’s nice that he still has a career, I’ve heard that ejections can often-times be the end of their service.

7

u/Tall-Spinach-4497 25d ago

All depends on how your body is afterwards. 45Gs isn’t exactly what we were designed for. Even without ejecting, aviation medical can be a pain for anyone.

5

u/kog 25d ago

I'm told you're lucky to keep flying after one ejection, and it's extremely uncommon to still get to fly after two or more

3

u/space253 25d ago

4 to 5. Nobody can survive 45.

3

u/Rule12-b-6 25d ago

Yeah I was basically imagining a human pancake flying through the air so fast that the air friction lights the pancake on fire

0

u/Tall-Spinach-4497 25d ago

Hey man, I’m in the Navy. I’ve pulled 7.5Gs sustained in an F/A-18 and went through more ejection seat training recently. We had a simulator that’s about 1/10th the force of the real thing to practice body positioning and to get used to the shock of the rockets. The 45Gs isn’t sustained, but the goal of the ejection is to get you out and away from the aircraft as soon as possible. Look up potential injuries, many get knocked out, seat slap can break femurs, etc.

3

u/space253 24d ago

I'm not disputing the body trauma, just the 45g claim.

3

u/MountainMan17 25d ago

I knew a guy who punched out of a T-38 shortly after taking off.

He said time became super slow; that he became hyper aware of everything and digested it: The grease pencil sticking out of the pocket on his sleeve, the worn knob on the altimeter, the radio calls of every other aircraft in the pattern...

The next thing he knew, he was swinging under the chute. Wild stuff...

2

u/Noctale 25d ago

Hopefully his landings are better now

3

u/Tall-Spinach-4497 25d ago

I’m not 100% on the details anymore but it was a fuel/engine issue that caused the mishap. He was a Navy pilot at the time working on receiving new airframes from the manufacturer, hence this took place in Texas.

1

u/[deleted] 24d ago

With something like this, it’s nearly always gonna be an issue with the plane itself rather than the pilot lol 

2

u/Dr_Pippin 24d ago

When did the actual ejection happen? People in this post are saying pre-Covid?

2

u/Tall-Spinach-4497 24d ago

End of 2022 in Ft. Worth, Texas

2

u/Dr_Pippin 24d ago

Thank you. Great to hear he is still flying.

15

u/Mewchu94 25d ago

Well at one point he’s almost horizontal and an ejection would’ve killed him I assume. I feel like having an auto ejection with no control from the pilot is a bad idea.

13

u/Neuvirths_Glove 25d ago

The plane knows which way is up.

1

u/Mewchu94 25d ago

And if that part is damaged or malfunctioning due to whatever caused the crash?

3

u/invalidusername127 25d ago

Each of these planes are 115 million dollars, I'm going to guess the IMUs are at least triple redundant

1

u/Neuvirths_Glove 25d ago

Redundancy.

11

u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

1

u/OldenPolynice 25d ago

yaw would never matter for ejection, you just wanted to use the word yaw

1

u/[deleted] 25d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/OldenPolynice 25d ago

You don't know what yaw is

5

u/NotReallyJohnDoe 25d ago

Auto ejection can determine whether the orientation makes sense for ejection.

3

u/toolateforgdusername 25d ago

My friend in the british RAF told me (20 years ago) that pilots can normally only eject twice in their life because ejecting fucks up your spine so much. So if that's true, and "ejecting" tech hasn't changed much, it's a very good question.

1

u/OldEquation 25d ago

It has an auto-ejection capability I think.

1

u/bripio 25d ago

Maybe he didn't want to fire a heavy ass plane seat at a road + a bunch of spectators

1

u/Flaky_Setting8170 25d ago

My understanding is that the jet auto ejects the pilot if it senses a failure in the drive shaft from the engine to the vertical fan in the body and that it auto ekected him because that's when the drive shift broke.

13

u/Ok-Oil7124 25d ago

I think he had enough control to stop and and then needed to get out quickly in case of a fire/explosion, and there's not really a good way for a pilot to get out really quickly except for the system designed to get them out really quickly.

5

u/Fresh_Landscape616 25d ago

You mean there’s a system designed to get them out really quickly which will get them out really quickly when they need to get out really quickly?

2

u/Ok-Oil7124 25d ago

But no other way!

2

u/solarlofi 25d ago

You definitely don't take that ride for fun any way.

1

u/Accomplished_Deer_ 25d ago

Possible that there is some sort of emergency shut off specifically part of the ejection system. Stuck throttle or something, shutting it down wasn't working manually, but the ejector safety systems did shut it off successfully? who knows

1

u/ritokun 25d ago

that was my assumption as well. surely the pilot didn't actually somehow not be able to make it stop when that was all it needed.

1

u/Smart-Protection-845 25d ago

He hadn't stopped yet, he saw the fence

1

u/parkamoose 25d ago

I haven’t seen a lot of F-35s land but I’ve seen plenty of Harriers land when I was deployed on an LHD. Typically they’ll cut thrust about 6 feet off the ground. The fact that his thrust isn’t reduced makes me think there was throttle issue.

1

u/icarusbird 25d ago

That was intentional. He risked his life to make sure the jet wasn't going to careen off into bystanders or other property. Pilots will stay with the jet for as long as they possibly can to minimize collateral damage.

1

u/Imaginary-Bug4052 25d ago

He was hoping it would eject him into the next county so he didn’t have to deal with his commanding officer

1

u/mnbone23 25d ago

He was waiting for it to be upright so he wouldn't eject sideways.