Donald Trump lashed out at the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin after the remains of an F-35 which temporarily went missing earlier this week were located in a rural part of Williamsburg County, South Carolina.
Last weekend, a military pilot made a 911 call from South Carolina requesting an ambulance after he reported he had parachuted out of an F-35 but he had "no idea" where the aircraft was.
"I'm not sure where the airplane is. It would have crash landed somewhere. I ejected," the pilot—who the Marine Corps described as an experienced aviator—told a 911 operator.
According to the Marines, the F-35 was flying at an altitude of about 1,000 feet over Charleston when the pilot parachuted to the ground and continued for approximately 60 miles before crashing. Officials were only able to locate the wreckage after more than 24 hours of searching—a delay that raised questions about why the jet was not tracked and why it took so long to locate.
In a post on Facebook, Joint Base Charleston described the crash of the fighter jet as a "mishap." While the incident is under investigation, Trump has blamed the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F-35s, for what he called "defective" features.
"On numerous occasions I told the Air Force and Lockheed Martin that the F-35 Fighter Jet is, in effect, DEFECTIVE, because it only has one engine," the former president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
"They told me that the engine is so good and reliable that it will never break down. I said that's not possible, everything breaks down at one time or another, just look at Crooked Joe Biden. You need redundancy, you need TWO ENGINES! No high-cost modern day plane should have only one engine," he continued.
"Well, an F-35 fell out of the sky yesterday. Hear [sic] we go again! I also recommended to 'bad maintenance' Boeing that they should not lengthen the unattractive, fat, and slow 737 to get a larger plane, they should go, instead, to an updated fast, beautiful, and sleek 757, the 'Praying Mantis,'" he added.
"It is commercial pilots favorite plane to fly. Had they listened to me, years ago, they wouldn't have had the disaster known as the 737 MAX. Those two horrible tragedies would never have happened. As they say, 'Trump was right about everything.' Thank you!!!," he concluded.
Newsweek contacted Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force for comment by email on Sunday.
