“I think it landed in my backyard”: That’s what a South Carolina resident calmly told 911 after a military pilot ejected from his F-35, according to an audio recording released Friday.
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The affair amused and shocked the United States in equal measure: On Sunday, a military base in South Carolina called on the public to help find a missing F-35 fighter jet. The device is valued at $80 million.
The pilot had ejected and was fine, she added, remaining silent about the “incident” that caused the soldier’s hasty departure.
It turned out that thanks to the resident in question, he was able to call 911, according to several transcripts of the call broadcast by the media in the United States on Friday.
The resident first tries to explain this strange situation to a perplexed telephone operator.
“We have a pilot in house. He says he got off the plane. And we just wanted to know if they could please send us an ambulance,” this person said.
“Pardon?” The operator reacts.
“We have a pilot. In the house,” the resident repeats. “I think it ended up in my yard.”
Then it is the pilot himself who speaks.
“A military plane crashed. I am the pilot. We have to start relief efforts,” he said. “I don’t know where the plane is. Maybe he crashed somewhere. I ejected,” he continues.
When the operator asks him what caused his arrival by parachute, he replies that his plane had a “breakdown”.
He also explains that he is fine and that his back just hurts.
“I just arrived on the ground with the parachute. “Could you please send an ambulance?” he said again before asking her if she was aware of a plane crash in the area.
Not yet, she replies.
The remains of the F-35B Lightning II, the flagship of American aviation, were finally found in South Carolina on Monday, about 24 hours after it disappeared.