A pilot was forced to eject from an F-35B Lightning II fighter jet during a crash landing at the a naval airbase in Texas on Thursday morning.
The crash happened at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, as the $100million jet touched down on the tarmac. The pilot's condition remains unknown.
It was not the first time an F-35B - which takes off and lands vertically, much like a helicopter - has crashed in recent memory.
Just this month a jet's forward landing gear collapsed while it was being towed across a tarmac in Japan, and last year a jet went careening off the flight deck of an aircraft carrier and sank into the Mediterranean.
The crash happened at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, as the $100million jet touched down on the tarmac
The latest incident was not the first time an F-35B - which takes off and lands vertically, much like a helicopter - has crashed in recent memory
Footage from Fort Worth showed the F-35B descending vertically from the sky to the runway and gently touching down.
The plane then appeared to bounce a few feet back into the air and travel forward, before suddenly pitching forward, nose first into the ground.
The aircraft flipped forward on its nose in a cloud of dust and smoke before spinning 180 degrees around. It then turned back around and fell upright onto its landing gear as it continued to slide forward.
The pilot then came rocketing out of the cockpit with their parachute in tow, which expanded in the air before they drifted to the ground.
Footage from Fort Worth showed the F-35B descending vertically from the sky to the runway and gently touching down
The plane appeared to bounce a few feet back into the air and travel forward, before suddenly pitching forward, nose first into the ground
The plans skidded forward in a cloud of smoke and dust on the tarmac in Fort Worth
The pilot ejected as the plane skidded across the runway in Texas
The jet's producer, munitions contractor Lockheed Martin, acknowledged the crash in a statement.
'We are aware of the F-35B crash on the shared runway at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth and understand that the pilot ejected successfully,' the company said.
'Safety is our priority, and we will follow appropriate investigation protocol.'
Lockheed Martin assembles the jet at facility that shares a runway with the Navy base.
Last February US Navy spokesperson confirmed that the photo above was a real picture of an F-35B which had crash landed in the South China Sea
The pilot of the F-35C deployed his landing hook to catch the deck and stop his jet, but something went wrong and he ejected and skidded over the side
The innovative jet was first introduced in 2015 and has been plagued with problems in recent years.
Just this past summer the Air Force grounded 300 of its F-35Bs - which had cost about $23billion collectively - because of faulty ejection systems.
At issue were the explosive cartridges inside F-35 ejection seats that blow the pilot clear of the aircraft in an emergency.
'Out of an abundance of caution, [Air Combat Command] ACC units will execute a stand-down on July 29 to expedite the inspection process,' an ACC spokesman told DailyMail.com at the time.
And in February of this year, a Lightning II crashed while landing on the USS Carl Vinson in the South China Sea.
Video leaked on social media at the time showed the jet approaching the ship before a sudden burst of smoke filled the frame accompanied by a violent engine sound before the video cut off.
Subsequent photos showed the jet half submerged in the water as it sank into the sea.
The pilot had ejected from the aircraft during the crash and was reported injured, as were six sailors aboard the Vinson.
US Navy Fort Worth crash was TWELFTH time $100m jets have malfunctioned in past eight years
June 23, 2014: A USAF F-35A had a catastrophic engine fire caused by a fractured rotor which saw it turn into a blaze as it took off in Florida.
October 27, 2016: A US Marine Corp F-35B set alight mid-flight due to a fire in its weapons bay before the pilot landed safely in Beaufort, South Carolina.
September 28, 2018: All operational F-35s were grounded while a probe was launched into why a fuel tube failed in flight after a horror crash at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina.
April 9, 2019: Parts of the tail of a Japanese F-35 were found in the sea around 85 miles east of Misawa during a training mission.
May 19. 2020: This F-35 crash on landing was caused by a tired, distracted pilot and unresponsive tail glitch.
September 20, 2020: A F-35 stealth fighter jet fell out of the sky and exploded on the ground after hitting a KC-130J tanker in a mid-air collision near the Salton Sea in Imperial County, California.
September 20, 2020: A F-35 stealth fighter jet fell out of the sky and exploded on the ground after hitting a KC-130J tanker in a mid-air collision near the Salton Sea in Imperial County, California
November 17, 2021: An RAF F-35B toppled into the Mediterranean Sea after the pilot tried to abort take-off from HMS Queen Elizabeth. Early reports suggested its engine sucked in an are inlet cover.
January 4, 2022: South Korea grounded its F-35s after an F-35A suffered an in-air malfunction. Its pilot made an emergency belly landing when its landing gear failed to extend.
February 2, 2022: An F-35B crashes into the South China Sea while attempting to land on the USS Carl Vinson, and the plane sinks to the sea floor.
July, 2022: Three-hundred US Air Force F-35bs - worth about $78billion - to investigate potentially faulty ejection systems
December 1, 2022: An F-35B's forward landing gear suddenly breaks off while the jet is being taxied across the tarmac at the Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan
December 15, 2022: A pilot was forced to eject when an F-35B suddenly pitched forward onto its nose during a vertical landing at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth.
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