By DoD photo by Lawrence Crespo, U.S. Air Force
A team of 14 engineers from the United Kingdom has arrived in India to inspect and potentially repair a state-of-the-art British F-35B fighter jet that has been grounded at an Indian airport for over three weeks.
The advanced stealth aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, landed at Thiruvananthapuram airport in the southern Indian state of Kerala on 14 June. It had been diverted mid-flight due to adverse weather conditions encountered during a sortie over the Indian Ocean.
Following its unscheduled landing, the jet developed a technical fault and was unable to return to HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier. Despite initial assessments conducted by engineers aboard the carrier, the issue could not be resolved on-site.
On Sunday, the British High Commission confirmed in a statement that a specialist engineering team had been “deployed to Thiruvananthapuram airport to assess and repair the F-35B aircraft.” The statement also noted that the team had brought “specialist equipment necessary for the movement and repair process.”
Indian news agencies ANI and PTI released video footage showing a British Royal Air Force Airbus arriving at the airport to deliver the UK-based technical experts. Additional footage captured the F-35B being carefully towed into a hangar. The High Commission had previously stated it had “accepted the offer to move the craft to the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility” and was awaiting the arrival of equipment from the UK before proceeding.
The F-35B is renowned for its cutting-edge technology, short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) capability, and stealth features. Each jet is estimated to cost around $110 million (£80 million). To ensure its security while stranded, the aircraft is being guarded 24/7 by six Royal Air Force personnel.
The prolonged grounding of such a sophisticated warplane on foreign soil has stirred considerable attention and speculation. In the UK, the matter has been raised in the House of Commons, where questions have been asked about the situation and its implications.
Meanwhile, in India, the F-35B has unexpectedly become a cultural moment. Images of the jet parked alone on the rain-soaked tarmac, exposed to Kerala’s monsoon showers, have gone viral. Social media has been flooded with memes and jokes portraying the jet as an unwilling tourist reluctant to leave the picturesque state, often referred to in Indian tourism as “God’s Own Country.”
Defence experts have noted that if the engineering team is unable to fix the issue and render the jet flightworthy, the only viable option may be to dismantle the aircraft and transport it back using a large military cargo plane such as the C-17 Globemaster.
The incident has highlighted not only the complexity of operating cutting-edge military hardware globally, but also the challenges and diplomatic coordination involved when such systems encounter problems far from home.
