British F-35B fighter remained grounded in India for over 48 hours after emergency landing
- In Reports
- 06:32 PM, Jun 17, 2025
- Myind Staff
A British Royal Navy F-35B stealth fighter aircraft remained grounded at Thiruvananthapuram airport for more than 48 hours after it made an emergency landing on Sunday morning. The aircraft was part of the UK's HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group, which had recently completed a joint exercise with the Indian Navy in the Indo-Pacific region.
The British jet made an emergency landing after it went low on fuel in what military and aviation experts described as unusual but not unprecedented.
Sources and media reports said a suspected mechanical failure kept the aircraft grounded. Efforts were underway to service the jet so it could return to the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier.
For a foreign fighter jet to stay grounded for 48 hours was uncommon, especially for the F-35, which was the most expensive aircraft program and the largest 5th-generation stealth fighter in terms of operational numbers.
The F-35B variant was designed for short take-off and vertical landing, which allowed it to operate from aircraft carriers without catapult systems. Israel is currently using F-35s to bombard Iran. The Indian Air Force called the diversion on Sunday a "normal occurrence" and said it was providing assistance to the aircraft.
It remained unclear why the F-35B did not recover onto the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier, though reports suggested that poor weather may have prevented a safe landing.
Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II is a family of 5th-generation, single-engine stealth multirole combat aircraft that comes in three primary variants. Its radar-evading capabilities and sensor fusion technology set it apart from older generations of fighter jets.
U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year offered to sell the F-35 to India during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Trump said, “We're paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” in a shift from the U.S. restrictions on F-35 acquisitions by foreign countries.
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