Missing F-35

[endpin]

I think the rules for formation flying are for Air Traffic Control to track a formation as one flight [that of the formation leader only] with the other formation members being invisible to ATC [squawking “standby"].

The reasoning being that only the formation members themselves are responsible for visually maintaining their separation relative to each other rather than ATC which is normally the case.

[Mr. Jelly]

This is just me, but I can't imagine the responsibility of ejecting from an expensive rocket/bomb headed for who knows where. I don't think it's up to the pilots disgression though.

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

This is just me, but I can't imagine the responsibility of ejecting from an expensive rocket/bomb headed for who knows where. I don't think it's up to the pilots disgression though.

He's got the eject lever, so I guess he has some say in the matter. But I'll tell you if I was flying something that just had a wing shot off by a missile, I wouldn't ask mother may I.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

I'm fine with them taking all the time they need to conduct a thorough investigation.

100%, no rush at all. I'm curious what caused it, but with some of Bob's history there I guess it's not totally uncommon to have malfunctions which make the pilot eject before the plane is really in a critical situation.