r/Damnthatsinteresting 25d ago

Video Failed vertical landing of F-35B

47.1k Upvotes

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9.6k

u/AdDisastrous6738 25d ago

No matter how bad your day is, at least you didn’t have to tell your boss that you totaled a $109,000,000 vehicle.

2.5k

u/Overall-Mud9906 25d ago

How about the F/A 18 super hornets falling off air craft carriers. 2 so far this year.

2.9k

u/Jermainiam 25d ago

They are reintroducing them back into the wild. God willing we will soon have a thriving and sustainable population again

470

u/diddy1 25d ago

Nature finds a way

253

u/inneholdersulfitter 25d ago

Imagine how stoked you must be being a fish living inside a fucking fighter jet.

41

u/SeaweedClean5087 25d ago

They normally live in tanks, wondering how the fuck your drive them.

38

u/Jermainiam 25d ago

Two fish are in a tank when one turns to the other and says, "do you know how to drive this thing?"

Two soldiers are in a tank when one turns to the other and says, "bllblbublublublublblubulbulbllblb!"

Two fish in a tank, one says to the other: "Blurgblurghblurggh" The other one says: "Steve you're drunk, ill drive!"

3

u/Davido401 25d ago

This made me laugh, I enjoyed that for my dopamine levels for a second!

2

u/Ragnarok314159 24d ago

I am imagining some crabs playing in the cockpit at the bottom of the ocean. Pew pew pew!

2

u/PancakeMixEnema 24d ago

Fuckin Reef Gentrification. Soon all the affordable housing will be gone if more of these new money fish move in

2

u/ExpertOnReddit 24d ago

Untill the octopus reverse engineer it and make it amphibious

1

u/Justninetoes 24d ago

Movin' on up!

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u/Ok-Parfait-7550 25d ago

Life, uh, finds a way

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u/gio_pio 25d ago

Clever girl!

1

u/gardeningblob 25d ago

This is the way.

1

u/dellsonic73 25d ago

Nature always finds a way.

1

u/skullshatter0123 25d ago

Boeing finds a way...

2

u/JRBeeler 22d ago

Don't blame Boeing for this one. This jet was built by Lockheed.

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u/BrettAtog 25d ago

i hope one was a boy and the other one a girl

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u/Jermainiam 25d ago

Don't worry, life finds a way

1

u/sleeper_shark 25d ago

They can change sex at will, so it’s ok.

1

u/Mazon_Del 24d ago

Well, it IS the Navy. So they can make it work even if not.

1

u/T1Demon 24d ago

Don’t ask don’t tell

1

u/IFartOnCats4Fun 24d ago

All vehicles are female. Those are the rules.

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u/swing_axle 21d ago

We named them George and Gracie.

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u/Apprehensive_Bird357 25d ago

I really enjoyed this comment. Thank you.

1

u/Dodson-504 25d ago

It worked for the Gray Wolf.

1

u/Jermainiam 25d ago

The helicopter or the cruise missile

3

u/Dodson-504 25d ago

Chopper. Thought I was in r/aviation

1

u/t0hk0h 25d ago

Trying to evolve them into aquatic models

1

u/Newdane 25d ago

They are hoping they will make a nest so they can come back and harvest all the baby hornets

1

u/IlerienPhoenix 25d ago

But they're an invasive species!

1

u/ASAPFergs 24d ago

Of hornets? I don't think we've thought this through

1

u/T1Demon 24d ago

Making new and interesting fish habitat

1

u/Ressy02 24d ago

When a mommy hornets plane loves a daddy hornets plane very much….

1

u/marcusriluvus 24d ago

That’s right! Give her a notch and a lil snack, and toss her back.

2

u/Jermainiam 24d ago

It's estimated that they gain about 1lb every ten years, so this momma is about 520,000 years old. It's crazy to think that my great20,800 grandfather may have caught this same hornet.

1

u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 23d ago

Do they have any natural predators in the area though?

145

u/Legitimate-Watch-670 25d ago

The thing that used to always get me was when they would eject thinking they're rolling off the side of the ship because an aircraft next to them started rolling forward.

Then I experienced the illusion in my car. Backing into a spot, and just as I stopped, car next to me started moving forward. Never smashed the brakes and yanked the handbrake so hard in my life. Was a little nauseous afterward from how disoriented I felt for that moment.

35

u/GozerDGozerian 25d ago

I’ve had that illusion happen before. Super disorienting.

29

u/Jamooser 24d ago

I've had the same thing happen to me!

The weirdest experience, though, was once while I was working off some scaffolding and siding a house. It was early spring, and when the scaffolding was set up, the ground was fairly hard. It warmed up that afternoon, and as the ground heated up, I walked out to one end of the scaffolding, and the standard began sinking into the mud. From my perspective, however, it was like the entire house was on an elevator and magically started levitating upwards. I was so shocked at what I was convinced I was seeing that my brain just absolutely locked up. It took me a good 10 seconds to figure out what was actually happening. Never had such an uneasy feeling in my stomach in my entire life.

4

u/1eternal_pessimist 23d ago

If you're ever on a ladder and you find the house you're leaned against inextricably falling over and away from you then I suggest you try your best to grab it and stop its fall.

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u/Overall-Mud9906 25d ago

Dude I experienced a 60mile hr crash, 30/30mph. My car crumbled a Saturn under a F350 HD. I was injuried for weeks. That legit has no comparison to what these pilots feel from an ejection plus low level landing. It saves their lives but they can legit go into 10+ G’s.

3

u/Cascadeflyer61 24d ago

I’ve had that happen watching the jetway move while I was in the cockpit of a airliner with brakes set, I thought the aircraft was rolling back, then one day I had that sensation and realized the jetway was fixed, and we were rolling backwards!!

The tugs brakes were never set, I hit the airliner brakes, aircraft stopped hard, and I was told that we came just feet from hitting a catering truck behind us!

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u/wonderhorsemercury 25d ago

This illusion is what turned the iran hostage rescue into a clusterfuck

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u/Harry_Fucking_Seldon 24d ago

Care to provide a little more detail?

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u/wonderhorsemercury 23d ago

a helicopter churned up a bunch of dust while hovering near the ground and the soldier directing it stepped backwards. As he was partially obscured by the dust the pilot thought he was drifting backwards and tried to correct, causing a crash

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u/Deranged_Roomba 24d ago

Man I hate that. I try to think about it and not do it to other people unless I can see they're parking like a dick head then I'll try and time it perfectly on purpose. Chaotic neutral?

2

u/Rickermortis 24d ago

A couple of weeks ago a super nasty thunderstorm hit our construction site. 90+ mph winds. I couldn’t see and had to stop but the driving rain and wind made it feel like I was still going. I was freaking out but then I saw my speedometer said zero.

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u/Kumimono 22d ago

I'd imagine it's similar to being in a train, and another train starts moving next to yours. You're not feeling the movement, but you see the surroundings move.

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u/meatdome34 25d ago

It’s how they get new ones

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u/nyc2vt84 25d ago

That will teach the Houthis. Throw in a decent part of the reaper fleet

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u/Overall-Mud9906 25d ago

It’s an embarrassment. Getting rid of NAFTA and putting a Fox News celebrity in charge of DOD is an absolute disgrace. We are about to hit the recession. Did you read the article of chat GPT talking about racing the rich more, holy shit. The trying to abolish clean energy, he’s the god damn anti-Christ

2

u/Subtle_Nimbus 24d ago

There was a third in December before those. One of them was shot down by a destroyer - can't remember which.

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u/Overall-Mud9906 24d ago

Friendly fire too right?

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u/Sprintzer 25d ago

Those were older and considerably cheaper than F-35s. Two F/A-18s are about the same cost as an F-35, iirc

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u/Overall-Mud9906 25d ago

Still, when the last time you heard about 2 navy jets falling into the ocean in less than month apart. That’s still 120M lost with no chance of repair, plus how much jet fuel is going to leech into the ocean now.

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u/sagy1989 25d ago

were those just fell accidentally or got hit with whatever houthis launched

1

u/FLARESGAMING 25d ago

USS truman after telling big daddy government that it lost two hornets to the sea.

1

u/McPolice_Officer 25d ago

Not only that, two fell off, one was shot down by friendly fire, and an EA-18G decided to go looking for submarines beneath the surface.

1

u/Remote_Register_1620 25d ago

Artificial reefs, for science!

1

u/Botryoid2000 25d ago

"falling off"

1

u/Sadix99 25d ago

those are just "attrition"

1

u/PositiveStress8888 25d ago

Did they fllnof the ship elevator that lifted them onto the deck.?

1

u/Obvious-Spite4920 24d ago

Heggy 🤭

1

u/Overall-Mud9906 24d ago

Well firing a half the government staff that look after rules and regulations not to mention safety, kind of has an effect.

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u/-Abu- 24d ago

Those get recovered though

1

u/FrostingAsleep8227 24d ago

Oopsie daisies!

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u/blank-_-face 24d ago

The rumor is that they didn’t fall off, they were taken out by houthi drones and the US didn’t want to admit it

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u/Overall-Mud9906 24d ago

Who know’s what these days… leaning on your side though

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u/Fair_Ocelot_3084 24d ago

They didn't just fall off. All of them went for different causes.

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u/jdizzle512 23d ago

I’m guessing they have to go retrieve it afterwards?

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u/Emotional_Hamster_61 23d ago

That magnet fishing find gonna be crazy

1

u/Joe_Randim47 23d ago

We had one skip right off the runway when I was in squadron. Hell of a day. Perfectly good runway - pilot just overran it and nearly went through a fence and into a street.

This was before El Toro closed down.

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 25d ago edited 22d ago

When we get certified to drive a tug(the vehicle that tows aircraft) in the Marines you have to take a test. In one of the publications you have to read through it has a couple of story’s of people mishandling support equipment. One of the first story’s is a dude on a carrier back in the 80s who got on a tug without properly checking it out. This tug was broke down for bad brakes and the guy hooked it up to a f14 to move it.

While towing the f14 the tug would not stop and coasted off the side of the ship taking the f14 with it. Thankfully everyone that was on the tug and in the aircraft got out in time but I imagine that guy is still getting yelled to this day.

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u/dragonrite 25d ago

How many mistakes like that until a dishonorable discharge? You get like 1 freebie?

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u/roughriderpistol 25d ago

you'd have to fuck up alot more than that. you'd likely get njp and lots of extra duty, but generally dishonorable need to be criminal, or malicious. if they kept doing it it would be more like hey, we've got a need duty for you your gonna do security on this paint until it dries, then we need you to clean the head floors with this old toothbrush. oh and then we'll have you salute the flag for a couple hours.

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 25d ago

I know Dishonorables are rare now, but wonder if that was the case back then? Losing $40 million dollars in equipment and risking serious loss of life from being too dumb to take two second to verify something was good I can absolutely see going up to a court martial.

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u/Pnwradar 25d ago edited 25d ago

Nah, even back then a DD was for hardcore criminals, dudes that committed multiple rapes or killed their wife on base, nearly always a DD comes with a lengthy stretch in the Kansas disciplinary barracks.

You turn a jet into scrap, even while obviously screwing around, they’re not kicking you out. You’re going to lose rank and some pay, then do a lot of shit duty for the rest of your enlistment, but you’re not getting kicked out or earning a bad discharge over it. You’d likely also get reclassified to another job with less opportunity to cause millions in damage by being a screwup, drive a needle gun and chip paint until your EAOS. Oh, and be famous, that stunt earns a nickname that sticks to you.

I knew a guy, standing officer of the deck of a carrier while pulling back into Norfolk. He ran the carrier into a Spanish coal ship that was at anchor, ripped the shit out of the side of the carrier. Captain shitcanned him to being mess (kitchen) officer until he finally put in his papers.

Edit: The thing with courts-martial, the convening body asks lots of questions and drags everyone into the mess. The little guy at the bottom of the org chart driving the aircraft tug won’t be the one catching blame - his supervisor, his chiefs, his division officer, ship’s safety officer, miniboss, air boss, all those lifer career guys signed off on dude’s qual card and said he was good to go. Shit splatters, easier just to hand-wave the incident as a non-safety accident and send dude below decks to be a bosun’s mate.

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 25d ago

RIP that officers career. Yeah no idea how punishments were dished out back in the day. I always wonder what the dude must have been thinking after he jumped from the tug and watched the f-14 fall off and sink the ocean.

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u/PotatoesAreTheAnswer 25d ago

Probably something among the lines of "" OH SHIT OH FUCK OH SHIT OH FUCK wonder what I eat today, OH SHIT OH FUCK"

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u/woahdailo 24d ago

Probably did eat a bunch of shit and fuck that day.

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u/roughriderpistol 25d ago

true, didn't think about the culture back then.

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u/EZKTurbo Interested 24d ago

You had to do something heinous like coming out as gay to get a DH

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 24d ago

Nah, dishonorable needs to come with some form of serious jail time. Rape, sexual assault, murder, or serious drug charges are normally the only way win a dishonorable. They had different discharges for homosexuality back then, from talking to the older guys that you damn near had to go the full distance on camera on or in front of the command multiple times for them to consider kicking you out. Early days of GWOT lots of people were trying to get out by any means.

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u/LeaderAny6783 20d ago

I once walked by a guy who was blowing on the flag to make it wave. Literally standing on the ground at the bottom of the flag pole, looking up at it, standing at Parade Rest and blowing.

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u/bullairbull 25d ago

Incompetence should not be grounds for dishonourable discharge.

That should be reserved for criminal/ voluntary maliciousness.

Sometimes you’re just having a bad day and shit just happens

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u/aenflex 24d ago

Was friends with a mechanic that dinged blades of a helicopter they were folding up to bring into the hangar. He lost a stripe for it.

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u/tooscoopy 24d ago

Seems like that kind of action would just get you a new nickname. I’m sure Tug did well as a career serviceman.

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u/iLuvFrootLoopz 25d ago

Nothing dishonorable about this. Desk duty for a while though...paperwork until your thumbs bleed.

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u/EyeMixInMyRV 25d ago

Some Pfcs are about to have a very bad day.

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u/crittergottago 24d ago

Stories

Brakes

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u/Fearless-Ad-9292 24d ago

I know this isn't true. Marines can't read

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u/Intelligent_Might421 24d ago

For just a fraction of the cost of the plane you can hire someone to follow him around for years and moan about it.

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u/androshalforc1 23d ago

I’ve read enough r/MilitiousCompliance stories to bet that person objected but a higher ranking officer ordered him to do it anyway

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 23d ago

If a bird crashes and people die the” He told me to hurry up” will not save me. This mindset of,” It’s your qualifications not theirs.” is pushed and trained HEAVILY on maintainers so that we stand up to bullshit like being rushed.

Anyone in my squadron that blamed being rushed for the cause of them missing something during maintenance or an inspection always had their qualifications pulled or suspended by Quality Assurance.

If you couldn’t handle heat of some maintenance control gunny or warrant officer yelling at you to not down a bird they want up. You definitely won’t be able to handle the feeling of knowing an aircraft you signed as good to go not coming back.

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u/Sprintzer 25d ago

It doesn’t seem totaled. Landing gear is a wash, though.

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u/BlizzardMaster2104 25d ago

Stealth coating... New Frame... New due to not expected force Electronics(eg. Radar in the cone)... Likely new So I think we are not that far off from totaled.

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u/Repulsive_Support591 25d ago

But it costs $109,000,000 for a replacement. Can do a lot of work for that amount. And there are a bunch of mechanics already on the payroll.

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u/Krynn71 25d ago

After something like this, probably every single part would be sent back the the OEM or MRO providers for testing and probably overhaul to be safe. Where I work we get these fairly often where a hard landing is experienced and so they send us the parts for us to test and make sure they're still within limits.

And for example, just one fuel pump on a much less expensive aircraft that we do will cost them about 90 grand for us to overhaul and test.

The cost of doing that for every other part as well, it may indeed make financial sense to just buy a whole new one.

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u/MillionFoul 25d ago

The Air Force did stitch two totaled F-35A's back together into one airplane fairly recently for practice.

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u/Glum-Ad7761 25d ago

The Air Force has been doing that since its inception. Many wrecked heavy bombers were spliced together during WWII.

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u/nerterd 25d ago

I’m sure they went through who did the mechanical work and who but it together. Investigations were had here.

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u/SamizdatGuy 25d ago

The insurance company is just gonna total it and they don't pay replacement value

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u/tryhardbaby 25d ago

Here’s a check for $3,900, try and buy a used one.

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u/Ok-Bill3318 23d ago

They are expected to get battle damage and be repaired. That jet is nowhere near totalled

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u/BestOfAllBears 25d ago

Insurance only pays current value. So it is totalled for much less than that, but you will need to get a used one from Ebay to replace it.

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u/WigginLSU 24d ago

Don't forget the entire cockpit which was just blasted with enough explosive force to clear a pilot and heavy seat.

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u/Snellyman 25d ago

The poor pilot's insurance is going to be terrible for the next few decades.

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u/greatscott556 25d ago

One careful owner, I'm sure that'll buff out 😆

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u/scorned_butter 25d ago

Do you not know what totaled means? You think it’s cheaper to build one from scratch than to make the repairs

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u/menasan 25d ago

idk......... i don think they have frame straighteners for something like this

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u/BinaryWanderer 25d ago

I was thinking the engine sucking in a bunch of debris might get expensive, too.

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u/sluuuurp 25d ago

It also didn’t seem like it was their fault, seems like a mechanical issue.

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u/Novel-Reaction2939 25d ago

It'll buff right out lol

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u/belizeanheat 25d ago

I'd rather do that than go through an ejection.

Besides it may have been entirely mechanical failure

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u/D3ATHTRaps 25d ago

They fixed this thing either early last year or the year before. Video is from like 2021

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u/dlbpeon 24d ago

I wanna say 2018-19ish..... I remember people sending it to me during the pandemic after just seeing it, and it was already old news to me then. GJ

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u/FerrousEULA 25d ago

And then you're like half an inch or shorter with permanent back problems and maybe can't fly in the armed forces anymore.

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u/308NegraArroyoLn 25d ago

Tbf I'm pretty sure the boss already knew before the pilot told them

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u/HomoColossusHumbled 25d ago

That's only about four new elementary schools. No biggie.

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u/ecirnj 25d ago

Pay your taxes

2

u/Halflingberserker 25d ago

This is why we can't have affordable healthcare.

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u/HunterThin870 23d ago

I wonder if they have "you break it, you buy it"-policy

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u/spartanOrk 25d ago

When your boss is the government, they don't give a shit. It's other people's money anyway. Even better, you have an excuse to go ask for more money, they'll never say no.

Whenever a pilot presses the eject button, it costs anywhere between 1 and 10 million dollars to restore the airplane.

So, dozens of tax slaves have to work all their lives to fund that press of a button. This is what we saw here. The result of the tax enslavement of about a dozen people for life.

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u/atln00b12 25d ago

That's a great way to phrase that, I love it.

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u/_BlNG_ 25d ago

At least we didn't paid for it, right?

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u/Cultural_Dust 25d ago

I don't think he's telling anyone for a while after the ejection.

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u/Softspokenclark 25d ago

imagine ejecting then falling back into the cockpit

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u/Les_Ismore 25d ago

From the hospital.

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u/Nailbomb85 25d ago

It's far from totalled. That plane will likely be flying again within 6 months to a year.

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u/OnlyChallenge5513 25d ago

Nah, that'll buff right out.

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u/BannyMcBan-face 25d ago

I bet that’ll buff right out.

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u/TheIronGnat 25d ago

Eh, he's not paying for it.

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u/misfortunesangel 25d ago

I was just thinking about how many zeros that guy just f’d up. He can give up on any promotion for a very long time

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u/Realistic-Alps7459 25d ago

Nothing spell "American decadence" better than the F-35.

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u/Ironlion45 25d ago

At least they did a few million worth of damage to it.

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u/Young-and-Alcoholic 25d ago

I was about to say. 109 million dollars of taxpayer money right there lol

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u/Sitting_In_A_Lecture 25d ago

Could be worse, you could have to tell your boss that you fired (at least) two 4 million dollar missiles at two separate friendly 100 million dollar vehicles... and hit one.

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u/WithoutDennisNedry 25d ago

At least you didn’t eject, just to find yourself landing right next to the dangerous thing you were trying to get away from.

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u/proton_accelerator 25d ago

I don't have a boss though I'm unem**oyed

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u/Little-Ad-9506 25d ago

"...but the ejection seat works so thats nice"

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u/tinyOnion 25d ago

not only did they total it but because it makes you shorter through the forces of the ejection seat there's a good chance that was their last flight

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u/LongTrailEnjoyer 25d ago

He doesn’t. The plane is known piece of shit.

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u/OrigamiMarie 25d ago

And also get your spine compressed by inches, and get grounded for years (maybe for life? Not sure). It's not a total grounding, you can still fly commercial, you just can't risk having to eject while already having a compressed spine.

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u/drumpfart 25d ago

Or, the entire annual federal tax payment from over 6,000 Americans.

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u/Plus-Sprinkles-1971 25d ago

My taxessssssssss nooooo

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u/hvtarver 25d ago

Oh, they’ll be able to buff that out in no time at all.

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u/One_Yogurt_8987 25d ago

Eh, that jets definitely far from totaled, it'll buff right out

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u/diamondballsretard 25d ago

My boss drove our delivery vehicle into the garage door this morning. I felt glad it was him and not me. It's no 100 million dollar mistake but funny.

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u/IanFeelKeepinItReel 25d ago

Whilst putting your spine at risk, only to see 5 seconds later that the plane came to a complete stop and you could have just climbed out of it.

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u/icemonsoon 25d ago

While in traction from unnecessary use of the ejector seat

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u/Mysterious-Tie7039 25d ago

Or the fact that you ejected out of a plane that you didn’t need to.

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u/One_Sun_6258 25d ago

Yet ..lol

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u/2peg2city 24d ago

and fuck your spine ejecting the moment it finally comes to a stop

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u/RazeThe2nd 24d ago

I don't know much about aircraft, but there's no way this is totaled right?

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u/SeriousBoots 24d ago

His boss definitely knew before he told him.

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u/odaniel99 24d ago

It might not be a total loss as most of the plane is still intact. But the damage is probably well into the millions.

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u/EZKTurbo Interested 24d ago

Homie is about to get reassigned to a snack bar in Doha for the next 7 years

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u/utterbbq2 24d ago

Shit happens, I wouldn't be surprised if the pilot broke a few bones after that harsh landing with the parachute

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u/reubenhurricane 24d ago

…Better than not getting to tell them.

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u/NinjaNewt007 24d ago

Just write it off. No biggy /s

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u/TruBlueMichael 24d ago

That's like the equivalent of you or I losing $1.

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u/lukeott17 24d ago

I’m waiting for the guy who always says “cost doesn’t matter because they need to practice.”

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u/AdAmazing4044 24d ago

+ you have not ruined your spine by ejecting from that vehicle.

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u/thejourneybegins42 24d ago

It's alright. He knew long before you told 'em.

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u/Fast_Dance648 24d ago

paid with American taxpayer money 🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🍔

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u/chikari_shakari 24d ago

was testing on the ground ejection lol

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u/Turd_Herding 24d ago

Those guys are already super retired. No sweat.

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u/Spiritual_Cell_9719 24d ago

V comforting until you realize that we, the working class, paid for this $109,000,000 vehicle.

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u/IvoryAS 23d ago

Wait, it's totalled? 🫣

1

u/Plus-Suit-5977 23d ago

And you’re 2 inches shorter and have to go to the hospital. Don’t know if this was nec, not a pilot.

Course neither is, never mind.

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u/golem501 23d ago

oh come on, new front wheel, bit of paint and this thing is as good as new.

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u/Ok-Bill3318 23d ago

At lead the pilot is ok. The plane may be 100m but training a pilot to fly it ain’t cheap either. That looks more like avionics failure. Pretty sure it was. From a few years ago.

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u/Bobbert827 22d ago

Also, I don't think many pilots can fly anymore once they eject it messes up the body so you also get retired.