Japan’s F-35A planes made 7 emergency landings

ANKARA (AA): Japan’s F-35A jet crash in Pacific Ocean earlier this month has brought to fore more incidents in which several US-made jets had to make emergency landings, local media said on Wednesday. According to Japanese daily Mainichi, five of the 13 stealth fighter aircraft bought by Japan made emergency landings in seven incidents from June 2017 to January 2019 during flight tests and drills.

“Of these, two emergency landings were due to faults recorded in the recently crashed jet,” the daily said quoting Japanese Defense Ministry. “Unplanned returns to base were made after the planes reported issues with systems relating to fuel, hydraulics and other parts. Excluding one case of an error by the aircraft’s monitoring systems, the remaining six saw the fighters inspected and parts replaced before they were confirmed safe to fly,” the daily added.