F-35 crash tied to hydraulic icing after 50-minute engineer call

A U.S. Air Force F-35 pilot spent about 50 minutes on an airborne conference call with Lockheed Martin engineers attempting to fix a landing-gear malfunction before ejecting and watching the $200 million jet crash and explode on a runway at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, on January 28, according to an accident report released this week. The pilot survived with minor injuries after ejecting; video of the incident shows the aircraft spiraling toward the runway and erupting into flames.

Investigators concluded the crash was caused by ice in the hydraulic lines serving the nose and main landing gears, which prevented proper deployment. An inspection of the wreckage found roughly one third of the fluid in the nose and right main landing-gear hydraulic systems was water, when none should have been present. The temperature at the time was reported as 1 degree Fahrenheit.

According to the report, the problem began after takeoff when the pilot could not fully retract the landing gear. When attempting to lower it again, the nose wheel would not center and locked at an angle to the left. The pilot ran through aircraft checklists, then connected with five Lockheed Martin engineers while...