UK’s F-35B Jet Stranded In Kerala : Airport Authority To Charge UK For Parking , Fighter Will Be Attended By 40 Member Team
Thiruvananthapuram : The British $110-million F-35 stealth fighter jet will complete a fortnight of being stranded on the tarmac of Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram airport on Friday. Multiple attempts have been made to get it back into the sky, but all in vain. Grounded since June 14 reportedly due to a hydraulic snag, the F-35B will now be attended to by a special tow vehicle being flown in from the UK, along with a 40-member team of British engineers and specialists, all headed to Kerala to carry out repairs.
On June 14, the F-35B Lightning II, part of the Royal British Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group, made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport after reporting low fuel levels, compounded by bad weather that prevented a return to the aircraft carrier stationed 100 nautical miles off Kerala’s coast. Now into its second week of being stranded, and even the subject of a mock social media post, the F-35B aircraft is finally seeing intensified efforts to fix it. Social media in India didn’t take long to jump in
Others joked that the jet deserves Indian citizenship now. Some said that the British F-35B is lucky to be parked out in the open in Kerala. Anywhere else, and it might’ve been stolen by now, they said. A 40-member UK team of specialists, equipped with a special tow vehicle, is on its way to Kerala to repair the jet in Air India’s Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) hangar located in the Thiruvananthapuram airport, reported the Kerala-based English newspaper Onmanorama.
The aircraft will be moved to a space in the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility hangar once specialist equipment and UK engineering teams arrive, a British High Commission spokesperson was quoted by The Hindu. Now the decision to shift the jet to the hangar reverses the earlier reluctance of the British Navy due to concerns untold, but best understood.
A Kerala Kaumudi report noted that the tow vehicle will ensure safe movement to the hangar, where repairs will proceed shielded from monsoon rains. The UK is working to repair the F-35B at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport as quickly as possible. We thank the Indian authorities for their continued support,” the spokesperson of the British High Commission in India was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. Previous repair attempts involved a small team of Royal Navy technicians, who could not resolve the hydraulic issue.
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