The pilot of a Royal Navy F-35 recounts of ejecting seconds before the crash

• The pilot expressed relief at being able to eject from the £100 million F-35.
• Hux barely had seconds to react.
• The moment the F-35 plummeted into the sea was captured on film by the ship’s onboard camera.

The pilot of a British fighter plane that crashed off a Royal Navy aircraft carrier has expressed relief at being able to eject from the £100 million F-35.

The pilot known as Hux stated shortly after the incident in November 2021 that he barely had seconds to react.

An official examination determined that the rapid loss of power during takeoff was most likely caused by a cover left on one of the aircraft’s jet intakes.

His narrative is featured in the BBC series The Warship: Tour of Service.

The documentary also shows how the Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth ship was harried by Soviet planes and how it engaged in a dangerous game of hide-and-seek with the Chinese Navy.

The Royal Navy pilot spoke to the filmmakers shortly after he was rescued and was still suffering from cuts and bruises caused by the high-speed ejection.

He describes how the jet suddenly lost acceleration: “I tried for emergency power – that didn’t work, then I tried to slap on the brakes – that didn’t work either… so I kind of knew it was going to roll off the ship.”

Hux’s life was saved by his ejector seat, which he characterizes as the world’s most advanced. That, and a lot of luck.

As his parachute activated, he says he saw the sea behind him “and then a second later I could see the flight deck of the ship starting to appear beneath me”.

Captured

He only made it to the deck by a few feet before being dragged to safety. He would have been pulled under the 65,000-tonne warship if he hadn’t landed on the carrier.

The moment the F-35 plummeted into the sea was captured on film by the ship’s onboard camera, which was leaked.

An official examination determined that the rapid loss of power was most likely caused by a blockage – a cover left on a jet intake by accident.

The aircraft, which is the most advanced stealth fighter in the world and is operated jointly by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom, was later recovered from the sea floor to guarantee it did not fall into the hands of the wrong people.

Chris Terrill, who filmed the documentary, claimed the F-35 collision was “a shock to everyone”, but said the response of the ship’s company was “as fast as it was extraordinary”.

“An aircraft might have been lost but there was a pilot, a shipmate, who had to be saved,” he said.

“Training kicked in but there was extra energy and urgency to the sailors’ execution of their emergency procedures. It was terrifying but inspiring to see.”

The six-part series chronicles HMS Queen Elizabeth’s eight-month, 49,000-nautical-mile voyage to and from the Pacific Ocean last year.

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