Bad weather forces UK F-35 fighter jet to make emergency landing in India

The F-35B from HMS Prince of Wales landed in Kerala due to rough weather during Operation Highmast; IAF facilitated the diversion and is supporting the aircraft

The British fighter jet, which made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in Kerala late on Saturday, had faced “adverse weather conditions”, diplomatic sources in New Delhi said on Monday.

 

The US-made, fifth-generation stealth F-35 Lightning II, which is part of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy and is based on the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, has been on the runway of the Kerala airport for almost two days.

 

The UK fighter jet was on a sortie but failed to return to the aircraft carrier’s deck owing to rough weather.

 

The HMS Prince of Wales participated in a joint exercise of the British and Indian navies in the Arabian Sea over 9–10 June. The UK Carrier Strike Group, led by the Royal Navy warship, is in the Indo-Pacific region on an eight-month Operation Highmast deployment. 

 

The emergency landing in Kerala was in accordance with the “diversion contingency plans between the British and Indian armed forces for Operation Highmast”, the sources said.

 

The Indian Air Force (IAF) said in a statement on Sunday that the diversion of the F-35 was a normal occurrence and that it was fully aware of the UK fighter jet’s movement and facilitated its landing for flight-safety reasons.

 

In a related post on X, the IAF said the UK fighter jet was undertaking routine flying outside the Indian air defence identification zone, with Thiruvananthapuram marked as the emergency recovery airfield.

 

On having declared a diversion in an emergency, the F-35B fighter jet was detected and identified by the IAF’s integrated air command and control system network and cleared for recovery, the statement said. “The IAF is providing all necessary support for the rectification and subsequent return of the aircraft.”