Japanese F-35 fighter jet disappears over the Pacific - NEWS.com.au

A Japanese air force F-35 stealth fighter crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a night training flight, the country’s defence ministry has confirmed.

The pilot is still missing though parts of the jet have been recovered. The F-35A stealth jet disappeared from radar while flying off the eastern coast of Aomori, the Air Self-Defense Force said.

It went missing about half an hour after taking off from the Misawa air base with three other F-35As for anti-fighter battle training.

Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya initially told reporters the cause of the disappearance was not immediately known. He said 12 other F-35s at the Misawa base would be grounded.

The pilot is a man in his 40s, Iwaya said.

Japan started deploying the expensive US-made F-35s since last year, part of its plan to bolster its defense spending and weapons capability in the coming years to counter potential threats from North Korea and China. Under guidelines approved in December, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government plans to buy 147 F-35s, including 105 F-35As, costing about 10 billion yen ($90 million) each.

No problems were reported with the aircraft before it went missing, according to Japanese media reports.

“First we are trying our best to carry out search and rescue operations,” Iwaya said.

“And then we will do our best to probe the cause,” he said, adding that Japan’s 12 remaining F-35A fighters will be grounded for the time being.

The fate of the pilot was also unclear, a ministry spokesman said.

“A total of eight aeroplanes were sent to the area, but we have not received any information about the fighter,” the spokesman said.

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“We will continue our search and rescue operations all through the night.”

The Self-Defence Forces and coastguard separately dispatched vessels to carry out rescue operations, he added.

Japan is deploying F-35As, each of which costs more than 10 billion yen ($A126 million), to replace the ageing F-4 fighter jet.

An 80-member squadron of the stealth fighters was just formed last month at the base, according to Kyodo News.

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April 10, 2019 at 10:00AM