VIDEO: $100m US F-35 stealth fighter crashes into aircraft carrier in South China Sea
A videograb shows the jet floating on the waters.
The US Navy has admitted that an F-35 fighter jet, known as "Stealth fighter", crashed while landing on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, last Monday, in the South China Sea.
Videos and photos spread quickly on social media of the crash of the F-35 stealth plane in the South China Sea, amid doubts about the authenticity of the incident, but the US Navy officially acknowledged it, in an official statement, on Friday.
The US Navy indicated in a statement that an investigation is currently underway into the accident, the causes of which have not been revealed so far.
CBS News said that a person on board the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson filmed a 17-second video, and then other photos of the plane that plunged into the sea, and these photos and videos quickly spread on social media, especially Twitter and Instagram.
According to the American network, the pilot of the F-35 fighter jet was rescued by an American military helicopter, while the accident resulted in the injury of 7 American sailors, and 3 of them were transferred to a medical center in the Philippines, while the medical team treated 4 others on board.
The US Navy is conducting intensive operations to retrieve the wreckage of the plane, which could contribute to determining the true causes of the accident.
The British newspaper, Daily Mail, said that this is the second accident involving an F-35 aircraft in just 3 months, as another plane of the same model, belonging to the British Royal Air Force, plunged into the Mediterranean at the end of last year.
The newspaper pointed out that the price of the American stealth fighter “F-35” amounts to 100 million dollars, and it is produced by the American giant “Lockheed Martin” for military industries.
