United States Marine Corps F-35B/C Crash

A United States Marine Corps F-35B continued flying without its pilot after an ejection near Charleston and came down in rural South Carolina, prompting a search that lasted more than a day before the wreckage was located near Hemingway. The pilot survived. The Marine Corps command investigation concluded that he had ejected from an aircraft that remained flyable, after misdiagnosing an out-of-control emergency in heavy rain, with electrical and display malfunctions as contributing factors, and classified the airframe as a total loss. The F-35B is the short-takeoff and vertical-landing variant flown by Marine fighter attack squadrons.