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The long ordeal of the British F-35B fighter jet stranded at an Indian airport is set to end, with the aircraft scheduled to fly out on Tuesday after being grounded for over five weeks. According to an airport spokesman, the jet will be moved from the hangar today in preparation for its departure. The spokesman declined to give technical details.
The F-35B landed on 14 June at Thiruvananthapuram airport in the southern state of Kerala where it was diverted after it ran into bad weather during a sortie in the Indian Ocean. It then developed a technical snag. Its prolonged presence on Indian soil sparked curiosity and raised questions about how such a modern aircraft could remain stranded in a foreign country for so long.
After the plane, which was part of the fleet of the HMS Prince of Wales, was unable to return, engineers from the Royal Navy's flagship carrier visited it to fix it. But they were unable to repair it, and a fortnight back, the UK ministry of defence said they had deployed a team of 14 engineers "to Thiruvananthapuram airport to assess and repair the F-35B aircraft".
The team came with specialist equipment necessary for the movement and repair process, a statement said. Videos from the time showed the F-35B being towed away to a hangar.
There had been speculation that if the technicians failed to repair the aircraft, it would have to be dismantled and carried out in a bigger cargo plane such as a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
On Monday, an airport official said that "the aircraft is confirmed to be airworthy".
It is scheduled to be pulled out of the hangar on Monday morning, he said, adding that the exact time of its departure is "yet to be communicated, which airport will be used for refuelling on the way to London or when the backup aircraft will arrive to transport the technicians and equipment back".
F-35Bs are highly advanced stealth jets, built by Lockheed Martin, and are prized for their short take-off and vertical landing capability.
Images of the F-35B, parked on the tarmac and soaked by the Kerala monsoon rains, made it a subject of jokes and memes with many suggesting that it did not want to leave the scenic state of Kerala, described as "God's own country" in tourism brochures.
