F-35B crash today

The pilot's condition is unknown at this time, police say.

Hate to see that

I'm wondering why he ejected. It looked to me like it was all over before he bailed.

Probably figure that he was better off as far as he could get away from thinking about what the jet engine was going to do sucking crap up from the ground, runway and anything close to it.
The turbine blades can cut the aircraft in half if they fail: shock: It's way better to be as far as you can get from it while it self destructs
The other thing to think of is how would he get out of the cockpit onto the ground safely

The chances of fire are extremely high in a situation like that...I suspect that was the fog that you started to see once it started to settle onto the ground. I'd get the hell away from it too.

$9 mil down the drain....

Imagine the toxins from the fire with that stealth coating burning

Looks repairable.

That's the Marine/Navy VTOL variant.....try 94 million per plane!

A lot of items on that aircraft are automated, the pilot might have simply gotten a message from the plane's computer it was best time to bale out.

Just a thought but I'd wager if the plane is in a situation where the computer thinks things are "out of bounds" all sorts of warnings go off.

You guys are both right on the cost.

It started out as a 9 million per plane and with cost overruns, final ticket 94 million. LOL

https://www.coffeeordie.com/air-force-major-crash

much additional info, such as not a Marine pilot, pilot doing well, acceptance flight before being turned over to Marines

Report why & “bandaid fix”

Once you learn about “resonance” it pops up often and in weird places

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/05/f-35-program-completes-band-aid-fix-engine/386758/

Mopar's fix for "harmonic resonance".

Ouch!.

British engineers created a really innovative and durable horizontal vibrating screen centrifuge that was meant to go into resonance using European standard 50 Hz motors:

https://birtley.us/centrifuges

I had a devil of a time finding rubber mounts that would shift this resonance frequency to match USA 60 Hz motors.

This centrifuge was driven by a big belt pulley with a unique hub design that needed no keyway or splines on the shaft - plain round smooth shaft.
I was sure it would slip over time either forward/back or clockwise, but it held firm.

Kermit Weeks filmed flutter testing his Gee Bee racer reproduction.
Pt 2 shows the process in detail.

Part 2