The truth about the LOST F-35: DEBUNKING the conspiracies 

The F-106 in the 1970 incident (aka Cornfield Bomber) righted itself after the pilot ejected and continued on for some distance in a gentle descent eventually belly landing itself in a snow covered farmer's field. It was found by the local Sheriff with its engines powered up and seemingly self-taxiing to a parking spot, finally running out of fuel about an hour and a half later. So little damage was incurred that the recovery crew literally hoisted up on a flatbed to take back to base. After relatively minor repairs it was placed back into full service. The pilot who ejected was able to fly it again in 1979. The aircraft now resides at the National Museum of the Air Force.

As a retired FAA "center" controller, I want to say that Alex's explanation of how the xponder works and why the xponder was off were very well researched and totally accurate. A "standard formation" requires that the lead aircraft keep all aircraft in the formation within one mile of the lead. The controller then separates the flight by 6 miles (rather than the standard 5 miles) from all other aircraft. Only the lead aircraft will squawk the discrete (assigned) code and all other aircraft in the flight squawk standby (off). This is to keep the "conflict alert" from activating which sets off a visual alert on the controller's scope, which in this case would be a distraction from his/her other duties. It gets more complicated for refueling flights and non-standard flights but for a basic standard flight, Alex's explanation is right on the money.

Even a non-stealthy fighter aircraft with ADS-B turned off would be very difficult to track by ATC, especially at low altitude. So an F-35 is pretty much impossible.

Within a few days you've put together a high quality 26 minute video analysing the facts, hats off

I was told by an old ground crew guy that they “misplaced” an entire flight of F-117 when someone forgot to place the reflectors on them after landing. Not sure this actually took place, but it supposedly took place in Desert Storm and brought flight ops to a standstill until they were found on the taxiway. You spent $100 million of our tax dollars to make a plane practically invisible and then get mad when you can’t find it. I’d be more mad if they did find it! At least the jet does the thing we all paid our tax dollars to do! LOL

I glad that most of the aircraft worked as promised and that the pilot is okay. During WW2 finding qualified and trained pilots was more difficult than finding or having an available plane for them to fly in.

This is absolutely crazy, that people are actually mad because a stealth aircraft specifically designed to be hard to detect on radar., couldn't be tracked by ATC. And the other part of this that everyone seems to overlook is that there is a emergency locator function for the aircraft part of the ejection system and if that is not triggered by either the pilot or the ejection system itself , it makes the aircraft hard to find, for both search and rescue,and crash investigators. This literally proved the concept of stealth works, if ATC couldn't find it. Martin Baker crew Survival Systems saved another pilot again. The biggest question is why the onboard ADS-B transponder never went to emergency mode, and that is the real question, as well as there a onboard system failure engines/ Avionics.. out of nearly 1,000 F35 produced so far, for the United States, and other countries less than 10 have been lost in training mishaps. Everybody needs to just take their foot off the gas., and actually let the Marine aircraft accident investigators, Lockheed Martin engineers do the job they're paid for,and put out initial as well as final reports with actual answers

If you haven't heard the 911 call of the homeowner who found the pilot please listen to it, it's hilarious 😂😆

I'm a retired A-10 driver and this analysis was superb. Well done Alex.

Love this channel. He uses common sense and facts and evidence. He doesn't use personal, biased feelings and views to push his own views as fact

Being a pilot, and seeing the original report on the loss, I felt there was a good chance they might not find it for years, if ever. The fact they found it so quickly is good fortune. I know how much work it is to find a normal, trackable, non military plane, that DID have a working transponder on when they go down. When I saw your video and was hoping there might be an update on HOW they found it, I was not expecting that you were going to have to dispel so many completely unreasonable and ridiculous theories. Thank You very much for putting out solid, reliable information, and for the update on just how many wild internet ideas were making the rounds. Evidently I'm already pretty good at avoiding them since there were several I hadn't heard of. Hackers pulling a Neuromancer on one of our super jets to remote fly it to Cuba...wow, ok, but I did get a really good laugh. I appreciate that.

Thanks for your research. I laughed when I heard a congressional representative asked what I thought was a dumb question, "why couldn't the plane be tracked?"

It's so typical that, after everybody hating on this aircraft, saying, "it doesn't work", now, they're all mad when it does, in fact, do exactly what it was designed to do, be difficult to track.

Great video on this F35B. When I heard first I thought it was a joke. When I realized it wasn’t, I was happy the pilot got out well. It must be really well designed to be so stealth that no one could find it for some time. I heard the sonic booms of the 2 F15’s chasing the MIG over Belgium. RIP to the boy that died in that incident. He had just finished his exams and was sleeping out.

If my understanding of low frequency radar is correct (doubtful), you still need to know where to look for a stealth aircraft. If I recall the way an F117 was shot down, they were flying regular routes on a regular basis, giving the enemy a chance to look for a “hole” in the air and send a missile to those faint signals.

Actually Alex according to highly placed administration officials who wish to remain anonymous, citizens reported seeing a F 35 enveloped by a huge balloon and carried off by Gamera. The huge flying turtle seems to only respond to Cantonese. A cute little Chinese-American boy has apparently befriended the strange beast and F 100 supersonic fighter jets are rushing him to the scene.

As always you are crisp, concise, clear and convincing. Your assertions are always well-researched and -sourced. Thank you.

Legends say that F-35 is now with Tupac Shakur.

Thank you for an informed, honest and timely explanation of what probably happened.

I had no idea about the automatic ground collision avoidance system. And it's the obvious answer to how the jet managed to carry on.

i feel for the pilot. the hearings, finger pointing, and paperwork would be a chore. can't be good for one's career. good luck Mr. Pilot

You are definitely the best journalist on aviation news. Keep up the great work!

The “Hacking from McDonald’s Wi-Fi” line made me crack up 😂

Why did it fail? A question that takes me back to a MoD project I was an engineer on. HDD failures in a fielded test system had been reported, for which I was tasked to investigate. In a greater interview, I found that field personnel were known to "tap" the control systems...meaning they were kicking the server racks with their boots. The issues were not successfully reproduced on my part, but then again, I wasn't kicking the chassis either. LOVE your analysis, Alex! Excellent, as always. Whatever caused the loss of this F-35B, I hope lessons are learned and applied accordingly. That the pilot ejected safely and there was no loss of life or injury on the ground is a pure blessing! (I should talk to the Boss about that and say, "Thank you!")

Thanks Sanboxx, your channel is my number one when it comes to gaining credible and accurate information in reference to modern aircraft!

Thank you, well thought out and very informative. Keep up the work you do.

THANK YOU very much Alex. Based on the info you’ve provided we can look towards this event through the lens of verifiable facts rather than the conjectures of the moment.

I was flying a B-52 over Kansas Center airspace about 6-9 years ago when our IFF failed. Center thought we crashed and called us frantically. ATC couldn't find a BUFF.... over Kansas.

U are one stud journalist. As a career military man with 20 years experience of flying fighters and an airline pilot,!as you said, the inability to locate the aircraft was intuitive to me but to others not so well versed in aviation your video should have made things perfectly clear. Nice touch referencing the AIM also. Really thorough!

I have one point to raise, The auto ejection system. You mentioned it's designed to function when the nose drops and there's a problem with the engine / lifting fan, And say because the aircraft flew so far afterwards it's unlikely this was the case, So my point is this, There doesn't necessarily need to be such a problem, The aircraft only needs to think there is, It could result from sensor faults as well, Although presumably there would be multiple backup sensors.. 🤔

Videos like this that breakdown the systems involved are fascinating. It's not just enough for a plane to make things go boom, there are thousands of other considerations and requirements that the onboard equipment needs to meet.

Could you make a video about the Norwegian F-35's that landed on highways in Finland yesterday? Would be pretty interesting.

The training flight originated from MCAS Beaufort, SC -- not the joint base in Charleston. Cause was most likely a mechanical or electrical systems failure. One unanswered question is why the ELT wasn't broadcasting from the moment of ejection through to the crash of the airframe. That beacon is designed to survive a crash and continue transmitting a tracking beacon, so should have enabled a rapid location of the crash site.

I'M SO MAD OUR STEALTH PLANE CAN'T BE CONSTANTLY TRACKED!

I was wondering why you were late to report on finding the debris, then I remembered that you don’t make videos until the fact are in and you thoroughly investigate.

Finally…. Solid work… Even in Denmark, where we are currently receiving these birds, journalists are going all in - without basic knowledge… Very well made post!

I am laughing at the level of simplicity you put this. But you put it so that almost anyone could understand it. As you always do. Thank you.

Wow man!! The amount of work and info you put into this is amazing!! I learned a lot from this vid, thank you for all the effort you put into it.

11:30 Speaking of "Stealth Mode", this plane was so invisible, that the guys almost tripped over its power cord.. haha

Good job Alex. I was pretty sure of the F35 being found because of some of the info you regularly provide on all aircraft on your channel. Anything else "we don't know yet" is SOP for military aviation or anything military. I was Navy for 20 years so I know how tight lipped the military can be... aboard an aircraft carrier I served on we couldn't find out about a days menu on the mess decks because it was something special for the CO's birthday so it was a surprise! There was a lot of speculation and rumors, it's prime rib or flight deck BBQ. But the Chaplain, XO, and the Wardroom and CPO mess had arranged a ship wide pizza delivery... that's A LOT of pizza, we were in port of course. LOL

It was a spider!!!! The pilot saw a spider in the cockpit and said “ Nope, not today sir”

Idk if I’m just weird for watching FlightRadar24 and ADSB Exchange all the time, but the fighters typically don’t put their transponders on once they’ve left the airspace of their departure and don’t turn them back on until they’ve entered the pattern for their arrival airport. Happens all the time with an F18 squadron that fuels up near me at a busy general aviation reliever airport. As soon as they’re about 20 miles out from takeoff, they shut them down

Emergency Services: We can't find it. Air Force: It's a stealth fighter. LOL.

Sounds to me like the DoD just spent $100 mil testing the radar detection of the F35 if it were to go down in a hostile environment. Thankfully the pilot is safe and nothing but knowledge was gained from this.

I just remembered when you were talking about the transponders, some atc radio traffic between tower and a civilian aircraft, where ground control only reported 1 f-35 in front, then corrected to 6 f-35’s in front. That makes a lot more sense that he would be so off if you consider only one had a transponder on

I did doze just a minute or two. What I would ask Alex is if you would keep track to see if the issue Japan had with the B variant, might end up being the same as this last crash. I never heard the reason for the Japanese F-35 so maybe that has been resolved already.

Conspiracies remind me human intelligence peaked decades ago.

The dumbest conspiracy theory I saw was that the government could have instead solved homelessness but instead decided to waste on a fascist plane. The people were tankies.

My only question/concern is... what role did the wingman play post-ejection? Was following the crippled jet not a priority? And if not, why not?

This is pretty close to what I was thinking. For the record, I was working on the Lift Fan system for what would become the F35B in 1989 and 1990, so I have some history with this aircraft. It was a black project then. With that said, I don't trust anything that the government says without verifying these days. The corruption and incompetence at high levels of the Pentagon and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has eroded my trust.

Thank you Alex, just love those crazy conspiring folks.

I guess not a lot of people have had to find something over a vast stretch of land. It's not easy. When you're dealing with tens of miles or more, sometimes something like an aircraft could be the size of a needle for all it matters. Especially when you have an aircraft designed to not be detected, I imagine they might have some trouble you know, detecting it, what a shocker. These are the same people who wonder why the tire always goes flat on the bottom.

A seasoned pilot of at least 20 years of service ends up in a random backyard with no radio, and a F35 jet happens to "disappear" with no debris. It didn't crash, it went where it was supposed to go. Can you say "Badger"?

I find it hilarious how many people in the comments who have never been an aviator or in the military deem themselves qualified to declare a forced ejection "ridiculous" and that a plane with severely altered weight distribution because of a missing pilot and heavy seat flying/falling 60 miles away difficult to believe. One of the main problems we face as a society today is people thinking that they know more than actual experts.

My only question would be this: after ejection the canopy obviously isn’t attached to the airframe anymore, wouldn’t that in theory make the jet at least slightly, if not significantly easier to detect? Radar waves being able to bounce around in the cockpit and all. Or would that not make enough of a difference to matter?

We have to remember, that while individual humans can be very bright, groups of people when exposed to the internet, tend to become quite stupid in the aggregate.

Excellent information and update. Thanks. I live in the Midwest (location not disclosed) and F-35's fly over my house on approach or departure dozens of time per week (or day). It's been eerily quite the past 5 days. 🚫✈

What surprises me is not that conspiracies are generated, but how many believe it because "official sources" are somehow always nefariously deceiving us. I have run into a few, proving the old adage "never argue with the fool, bystanders will not be able to tell the difference"

Complete and detailed as I like my information! Cheers.

I’m thankful you put a lot of this bullish!t to bed. I’ve even gotten questions at work ( they all know I’m a military/aviation nut) & some of the things I’ve been hearing are downright laughable. It’s insane. I wish you could broadcast this vid world wide…on standard platforms everywhere. Again & as always…Thank You Alex! For what you do…& how you do it. 😎👍❤️

LOL. Exactly what I suspected from the get go. People mad that the stealth actually works and totally oblivious to the fact that ground avoidance systems have been around for decades.

All in all - I can't imagine anyone involved sleeps well after this. Aside from the military implications, this was a very dangerous situation, imagine if it had gone down in a populated area like the MiG you mentioned (did it have live weapons on board?). I hope somebody learned something and does something about it, at least when flying in US air space.

Honestly, Depending on the condition of the wreck, we may not know what happened because if they don't have enough of the aircraft, or it's blackbox, which I'd assume the 35 would have, they may not be able to figure it out, and we will never know

If I was the lead designer on a stealth combat aircraft, and it was flying in stealth mode, I'd presume that a pilot ejecting meant the enemy had shot it down. So damned right, I would want all active electronics to TURN OFF ON EJECT in order to make it harder for an enemy to go recover the pieces. Anything else would be a gross security error.

Excellent presentation. Clearly you debunked all those conspiracies floating around in social media.

This F35 is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. The F35s are truly impressive machines.

This is what happens when some people take the joke "...never let the truth get in the way of a good story" way too seriously.

Excellent video as always. That ground avoidance mechanism seems like a great idea especially on fighters where they may have blacked out. Question: wouldn't it be a good idea for it to turn off if there is nobody on board to save? Ref: flying to Cuba: Center of S. Carolina to Havana is 736 miles, stated range of F35B is 1000 miles, so it could be doable depending on remaining fuel and weather conditions. Disclaimer I am not an airplane pilot, nor do I play one on youtube. ADS-B: one of the things I find annoying is government agencies are free to turn this on and off at their sole descretion, which makes keeping airspace safe an interesting experiment. People are complaining that a *STEALTH* aircraft couldn't be tracked radar? I suppose if it was tracked they would say its a waste of money.

very well sorted, great job! i was usaf air nav tech, and if he punched out, he didn't even have time to squawk 777 on IFF. he must have been under that much duress - or the plane was like: we're done, SEE ya! all that other stuff was prolly turned off too, like ils, vortac, etc.

I understand that a stealth aircraft cannot continuously transmit information. But I am nevertheless surprised that it doesn't have a transponder that can answer to a encrypted signal.

My first guess was an engine failure. I was laughing at all the craptastic fecal matter flying around the net. Keep up the great journalism Alex!

Super honored that a democrat is going to tell us what to believe.

Alex as a farmer officer in the military who served in a global war on terrorism I just want to thank you for your honest candor in admitting what you do know and don’t know. I also want to thank you for your very common sense flat level headed approach to analyzing things and explaining them to those who may not understand as well as those of us who have served. You would think it should be obvious to people with such an advanced platform obviously the government will provide just the minimum necessary information and no more on such an advanced platform which is only going to expand and get better as it upgrades. Are there flaws and problems with these wines yes. However if you study the history of our craft development this has been One of the two safest planes ever developed as far as test pilots losing their lives and actual pilots losing their lives! For people who want to know everything on the Internet they need to remember we are on the brink of World War III and disclosing all the capabilities and why everything happened the way it did would only give China and Russia information they do not need and should not have! Thank you for putting this in such a tactful way to such ignorant people! Keep up the good work. Thank you for being someone who says I don’t know what I don’t know from what I do know this is what I think is most likely to be but it could be A, B, or C and when you do know you stayed it and you give sources. Thank you for your methodical logical commonsense levelheaded approach and willingness to admit what you doing do not know and what is your conjecture in theory based off of your knowledge. This is the sign of an intelligent reasonable man and don’t let the conspiracy theory whack jobs bother you when they insult ! They are simply demonstrating their ignorance and ability to think logically and complex Lee integrate multiple sources of information which are certain some which are partially now and others which you have to drive through logic and try to arrive at the best solution which you do. Conspiracy theory people are unable to do this. I think back to when you talk about the. Flying triangle which flew over you in western Connecticut as a nine year old. You handled that with extreme professionalism logic and admit it you did not know what it was but provided various ideas but in the end just like with this analysis he showed your intelligence. Thanks again for your cool headed logical explanations. A grateful veteran and former staff officer.

Dude, this is easy, try to debunk the lefties, saying Mexico bought a russian carrier, su57, and russian submarines. 😂😂😂😂

I had to pause the video because I was laughing too hard at the "keyboard warriors!" That was so good! :D

Forced to eject from an aircraft that flew via autopilot? Wow you think the sheep are that stupid? 😊

Alex, this instance notwithstanding, our government consistently proves it’s not trustworthy.

Alex, this was very complete, very clear and settles all my questions. The net needs more journalism like this.

I worked on the F18 and a pilot ejected, the plane climbed turned and the headed back to the carrier by itself. Things happen

Lockheed-Martin should replace the loss and take it as a ''compliment''.... the best advertisement ever...!

Really enjoying your channel since Finding it. Great Job Buddy!

For what it's worth, Max Afterburner, a former Thunderbird pilot, commented that in the absence of control inputs the plane will tend to find a 1 G equilibrium (my understanding of what he said). If it was in level flight it will tend to stay in level flight even if the autopilot was not engaged.

Thank you for proving not all Americans on Social Media are right wing conspiracy nuts, it is so refreshing to hear simple truthful explanations for ordinary accidental occurrences.

Like clockwork, Alex Hollings delivers the goods. Excellent video. 🤙

Alex is one of the best journalists out there today!!!

Lockheed Martin over here like....hey you said you wanted it to be stealthy af

I was genuinely curious as to what happened with this thing And I learned a lot of stuff I didn't know about to boot! Thank You for this informative video.

"how the hell you lose f-35?".. basically it's a good question..

I've already watched this, yesterday. I left a comment about a Learjet that kept flying along after everyone on board died.

Flying the F-35 must be much like being an original 7 astronaut. One screw-up and you are on the front page of the New York Times.

The data from how the aircraft kept itself in the air would be super-interesting in terms of what specific actions the plane took to stay airborne for as long as it did. Super-interesting, but super-classified, too!😂

If anything at all, i think this incident has the answer for doubters of the F35's stealth capabilities: Yes. It works as intended.

Wow, that transponder information is really great. I didn’t know about that.

America:spends ungodly amounts of money to make f35s difficult to track Also America: why can't I track it?

Not to mention even having enough fuel to get to cuba...

I knew Sandboxx would straighten this stuff out!

23:00 -- And here is where the "hack" just becomes bad coding & pilot error. The avionics could have been tricked into thinking ground clutter is an actual obstacle like a mountain. The system ejects the pilot in order to save his life, but then continues on flying. The DoD statement said it was flying at 1,000 feet. The pilot says he was ejected from 2,000. That's a big difference. The pilot may have input bad altitude parameters into the system. Wouldn't be a first. Usually we find out after scraping the pilot off the deck.

I was waiting for you take on this. I knew you would give a comprehensive and concise summary of the situation.

for a $100.100.00 they better not be able to track it . . . thank ya, Alax your videos are top notch.

Thank you for the video. I had my suspicions when first hearing the story. There seemed to be so much confusion about what happened that it made me wonder if some sort of foul play was involved.