• @LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Seriously though, how do you lose a fighter jet in US airspace?

    Nobody noticed it on radar? Nobody noticed the boom when it hit the ground? Just wtf?

    e: I asked my dad, who was in the Air Force during Korea and has been a test pilot, FAA inspector, and has designed civilian planes ever since. My question:

    Sorry to bug you, but I’m curious on your expert opinion. How do we lose a fighter jet in US airspace? Like, how does air traffic control not have tracked it, and how does the air force lose track of it? How did nobody notice a boom? The pilot ejected, so how do we not know where this thing is? I’m very confused.

    And his answer:

    I have no idea 🙂. Just don’t seem right.

    e2: to the person who DM’d me then deleted (I think? I can’t respond and this thread now crashes my client) I expect domestic systems would detect an explosion in the air, and a large number of systems would detect one on the ground, which covers every scenario I can think of. That’s what I meant.

    I addressed him that way because we don’t talk much. We’re both engineers.

    • @Windex007@lemmy.world
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      41 year ago

      I recall many years ago, a pilot where I grew up bailed out of his F18. Not exactly what happened, but the aircraft stabilized and went FAR before it finally crashed.

    • Throwaway
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      21 year ago

      Well it has a lot of engine, a lot of stealth, and an autopilot. Makes it a nightmare. Hopefully is crashed into the Atlantic.

  • IninewCrow
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    51 year ago

    US military loses a jet fighter: … ah … oh well … waddaya gonna do … we’ll just buy another one, or two or thirty.

    • @CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      41 year ago

      I imagine they care less for the cost of the plane (I mean if it was uncontrolled with no pilot it’s probably crashed and thoroughly wrecked, right?) and more about avoiding having foreign intelligence agents and such finding it and studying the technology.

  • @lntl@lemmy.ml
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    21 year ago

    I guess they’re not offering a reward because it’d have to be for like $200 million minimum. I am sure foreign governments would pay a handsome bounty for any piece of the wreckage.

    • @onTerryO@lemmy.ca
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      31 year ago

      Giving every person/government with a bit of money access to their location would probably be a bad idea.