Man shares terrifying moment pilotless F-35 jet crashed near his home in 'boom'

20 September 2023 , 11:33

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Man shares terrifying moment pilotless F-35 jet crashed near his home in 'boom'

A witness has shared the shocking moment a missing F-35 fighter jet crashed close to his house.

A stunned Randolph White, 71, lives in rural Williamsburg County, South Carolina, and said he was "taking a shave" when he suddenly heard an alarming screeching sound. The odd noise was somewhere between a "screech and a whistle," Randolph said, before making an alarming screeching sound himself.

"I said, 'What in the world is this?' And I heard a boom! And my whole house shook," Randolph said to NBC, adding he didn't know what the source of the noise was for sure and thought it could have been a "meteorite coming from out of space, or something."

The former paper mill worker didn't report the incident and remained unsure of the cause until that evening, when he saw helicopters flying around. "Somebody must have robbed a bank, killed some people or whatever," Randolph suggested at the time.

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Randolph White said he heard a screeching sound (WCBD NEWS 2 /Youtube)

A large debris field was caused by the wreckage of the plane crash, which caused no fatalities after the pilot ejected safely. Randolph was thankful nobody was hurt, explaining a church is nearby.

"Anything man make can malfunction," the wise resident said. "So, we will try and give it the benefit of the doubt, but it needs to be investigated and the public needs to known what really happened. It shouldn't be kept a secret what happened because it could have been a major disaster."

The US military has set up a restrictive zone around the debris field to stop trespassers from going in and seizing chunks of the F-35, a state-of-the-art jet of which much of the technology used remains a secret.

A pilot was forced to eject but it is not clear why (Digital/AFP via Getty Images)

A US Marine Corps pilot was flying a single-seat F-35B fighter jet on Sunday when the pilot experienced a malfunction and was "forced to eject." The aircraft was only at an altitude of about 1,000 feet (300 meters) and only about a mile (less than two kilometers) north of Charleston International Airport, in a populated area that led the pilot to parachute into a residential backyard.

It is not clear why the pilot ejected and "a lot of unanswered questions" remain, according to former Marine Corps captain and the senior defence policy fellow at the Project on Government Oversight, Dan Grazier.

F-35s were temporarily grounded in July 2022 because of ejection seat concerns. At the time, all F-35 ejection seats, including the Navy and Marine Corps variants, were inspected, and the continue to be looked at during standard maintenance on the aircraft, the F-35 Joint Program Office said.

Benjamin Lynch