A British Royal Navy F-35B stealth fighter jet continues to remain grounded at Thiruvananthapuram airport more than 48 hours after it made an emergency landing on Sunday morning. The jet, part of the UK’s HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group, had recently completed a joint exercise with the Indian Navy in the Indo-Pacific region.
The F-35B landed in India after running low on fuel—an incident military and aviation analysts describe as “unusual but not unprecedented.”
Suspected Mechanical Failure Under Investigation
Sources and media reports point to a suspected mechanical failure as the reason for the extended grounding of the advanced combat aircraft. Technicians are currently working to service the jet and prepare it for return to the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier.
“For a foreign fighter jet to be grounded for 48 hours is uncommon,” noted a defence analyst, especially considering the F-35’s significance as the most expensive and widely deployed 5th-generation stealth fighter. The F-35B variant, designed for short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL), enables deployment from aircraft carriers that do not use catapult launch systems.
IAF Provides Assistance; Weather May Have Been a Factor
The Indian Air Force downplayed the incident, calling the diversion a “normal occurrence.” It also confirmed that it is assisting the British aircraft during its stay on Indian soil.
It remains unclear why the F-35B failed to recover onto the Prince of Wales, though some reports suggest poor weather conditions may have hindered a safe landing.
Lockheed Martin manufactures the F-35 Lightning II, a family of single-engine, 5th-generation stealth multirole combat aircraft known for radar-evading capabilities and sensor fusion technology.
F-35 Sales to India: A Strategic Possibility
Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump floated the idea of supplying F-35 jets to India. “We’re paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” Trump had said during a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signaling a potential shift in American policy on foreign acquisition of F-35s.