Pilot’s 50-minute in-flight conference call with tech support failed to avert $200 million F-35 fireball — pilot ejected and suffered only minor injuries

F-35 crash.

An accident report has revealed that a U.S. Air Force pilot spent 50 minutes on a conference call with Lockheed Martin engineers ahead of his plane plummeting to the ground and exploding in a fireball. Thankfully, the unnamed pilot ejected safely with just minor injuries, reports CNN, but the $200 million F-35 fighter jet was destroyed.

This incident took place on January 28, near Eielson Air Force Base, Fairbanks, Alaska. Investigations point towards the presence of water in hydraulic lines as the root cause of this military jet crash. But the investigator’s report also suggests the pilot and engineering team’s handling of the landing gear issue could have been better.