HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — An investigation into last year's F-35A crash at Hill Air Force Base found data system errors caused the accident in which the pilot safely ejected.
The F-35A Lightning II military jet crashed on Oct. 19 as it was returning from a routine training mission in Utah Test and Training Range airspace. The crash caused a small wildfire which crews extinguished just north of the base.
Following the crash, the pilot was recovered and transported to a local hospital for observation and released that same night. The $166.3 million fighter jet was complete loss.
A release Thursday from Air Combat Command shared the results of the crash investigation and shared that issues began when the F-35A experienced "slight rumbling to their aircraft due to wake turbulence from the preceding aircraft." The atmospheric disturbance resulted in "erratic inputs" to the aircraft’s air data application, according to the report.
The erratic inputs resulted in "erroneous outputs," causing the jet's flight controls not to respond to the actual conditions of the aircraft. Manual flight controls also did not respond to the pilot's inputs.
Seeing the F-35A was not responding to inputs, "the pilot selected full afterburner power to attempt to recover to controlled flight. Due to low altitude, low airspeed and sideslip flight path, the pilot was unable to recover the aircraft and initiated ejection."
The U.S. Air Force Aircraft Accident Investigation Board ruled the accident was due to "air data system errors immediately prior to landing that caused the F-35A to depart controlled flight in which there was no opportunity to recover to controlled flight."
The fighter jet crash was the first at the base since a F-16 Fighting Falcon crash in 2009.
