© Reuters (file photo)A U.S.Marine Corps F-35B
Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said that the crash occurred around 11:45 am local time, in the Grays Hill area. Emergency crews are responding to the incident.
The pilot "safely ejected" and is being evaluated for injuries, the authorities said.
The location of the crash was pinpointed to the northwestern tip of the island archipelago that hosts the Beaufort MCAS. Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is on the southern end, about 15 miles away.
The Beaufort MCAS is home to five squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets and one F-35B squadron. It was not initially known which type of plane was involved in the crash. The military later confirmed to ABC news that it was a F-35B, however.
One aviation enthusiast tweeted a photo of what appears to be the crash site, with black smoke rising above the trees.
The crash comes just a day after the same exact type of the fifth-generation jet flew the first combat mission. A Marine F-35B successfully completed a sortie in Afghanistan on Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed.
Designed by Lockheed Martin, the F-35 was supposed to be a modular, multi-purpose stealth fighter, easily adaptable to the needs of the Air Force, Navy and the Marines. In practice, the plane is beset by technical troubles and is over budget and behind schedule. The program's estimated lifetime cost has been put at over $1.5 trillion.
Reader Comments
Of course, people with at least a modicum of reasoning ability (of which there appears to be a dearth in the DoD/MIC) can discern that the official scenario only works if the enemy has little or no technical capability of its own and agrees to always play "air war" in strict accordance with the rules prescribed by US air war planners.