Henry Taylor/The Post And Courier via AP
A pilot who ejected from a F-35 Stealth Fighter Jet, whichcrashed on Sunday, landed in a South Carolina resident’s backyard on Sept. 17 — resulted in an interesting 911 call to emergency dispatchers.
The pilot then got on the call to describe the situation, letting the dispatcher know that he was a 47-year-old man and had fallen about 2,000 feet after “an aircraft failure,” per the AP andNBC News. He noted that he had some back pain, but was feeling “okay” to which the resident also noted that he looked “fine.”
“We have a military jet crash. I’m the pilot. We need to get the rescue rolling,” he told the dispatcher. “I’m not sure where the airplane is. It would have crash-landed somewhere. I ejected.”
Airmen from Joint Base Charleston speak to a family living next to the site of a crashed F-35.Henry Taylor/The Post And Courier via AP
The pilot continued to ask the dispatcher whether a plane crash had been reported in the area, and again asked for medical help later in the call. “I’m a pilot in a military aircraft, and I ejected. So I just rode a parachute down to the ground. Can you please send an ambulance?,” he said.
Joint Base Charlestonwrote on Facebookthat the pilot was taken to a hospital where he was in stable condition. The AP reported that he was later discharged after not sustaining serious injuries.
The military had asked for the public’s help in finding the $80 million aircraft shortly after it went missing on Sept. 17. Personnel from the Charleston base and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort eventuallyfound the debris field of the F-35 in Williamsburg County, the air base shared on Sept. 18, viasocial media.
Marines sit at a checkpoint in Williamsburg County, S.C., near the recovery operation for the downed fighter jet.Henry Taylor/The Post And Courier via AP
“JB Charleston is transferring incident command to the USMC this evening, as they begin the recovery process,” Joint Base Charleston wrote in a statement onFacebook. They added that “the mishap is currently under investigation, and we are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative process.”
Eyewitnesses who saw the plane before the crash toldNBC Newsthat they had seen the plane flying above them in an “inverted” position before the crash.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The marines also noted in their statement on Sept. 21, per the AP, that “the other bit of silver lining in this case is that through the F-35 flying away it avoided crashing into a densely populated area surrounding the airport, and fortunately crashed into an empty field and forested area.”
source: people.com
