Since the incident, Royal Navy engineers had been trying to identify and solve the problem without success. The episode has attained wide curiosity and become the subject of questions about how a cutting-edge $110 million warplane could have been left down in a foreign country for so long.
On Sunday, the British High Commission announced that a 14-member team of UK engineers had landed in Kerala to inspect and fix the aircraft. They have special equipment necessary for the recovery of the aircraft and the possible repositioning of it.
Tight Security Presence and Repair Work in Progress
Video footage showed the arrival of a British Royal Air Force Airbus carrying the technical team. The F-35B was subsequently pictured being towed into a hangar, a section of the MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) facility where crews are now trying to fix it.
Now the high-tech jet is being guarded 24 hours a day, watched over by six Royal Air Force officers. The F-35B, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is recognised for its stealth qualities and short take-off and vertical landing characteristics. For all its advances, the jet has failed one way, again and again, to impress onlookers — and has even been a source of jokes.
In India, a photograph of the jet resting on the rain-soaked tarmac during the monsoons in Kerala has made it an online sensation, with memes joking that the plane has fallen in love with Kerala, also known as "God's Own Country."
Possible Dismantling if Repairs Fail
The issue has also been raised in the UK's House of Commons as experts assess the next steps. If engineers are unable to shortcut the system and reinstate the jets' in-flight functioning, the only way of getting the jet home will be to take it apart and ship it in a bigger military cargo plane: a C-17 Globemaster would be one option available.
In the meantime, interest among defence commentators, napkin-armed theorists and goobers everywhere remains high in the fate of the next-gen fighter jet.
