A decision to eject from a failing F-35B fighter and the betrayal in its wake

Summary

41 seconds Inside a Marine's decision to eject from a failing F-35B fighter jet and the betrayal in its wake March 30, 2025 By Tony Bartelmetbartelme@postandcourier.com 1. DECISIONA dark mass of clouds hung low over North Charleston as Marine Col. Charles "Tre" Del Pizzo began his descent. It was a Sunday afternoon, late September 2023. Del Pizzo's hands were on the control stick and throttle of an F-35B Lightning II, the U.S. military’s most advanced stealth fighter, a $136 million supercomputer with wings. The F-35B can hover like a helicopter, and Del Pizzo planned to use that technology to land.Del Pizzo had just finished a training sortie over the Atlantic with a second F-35B pilot, practicing tactics at upwards of 500 mph at seven times the force of gravity. He needed to experience this jet’s strengths and weaknesses. At 48, he was a full bird colonel getting ready to command a squadron in Yuma, Ariz., a high-visibility assignment to fine-tune the Marines’ aviation strategies and procedures, including those for the F-35B.As he closed in on Charleston Air Force Base, he knew he’d hit some bumps. Forecasters earlier had said the weather would improve, but the opposite happened. Heavy clouds moved in like a big gray curtain. He shot through some turbulence, streaks of precipitation on the canopy, zero visibility. He’d use his instruments to get through it all. No big deal. Pilots do instrument landings all the time in crud like this.And the F-35 was packed with instruments, cameras and sensors — all feeding a torrent of data into computers linked to his $400,000 helmet display. The helmet itself was an engineering wonder, custom built for each pilot. It had a dark visor that displayed the jet’s speed, altitude and targeting information, all of which moved with his head. The jet had cameras mounted on the bottom of the plane that streamed videos to the visor. If he looked down, this fusion of data and optics allowed him to see through the plane’s smooth shark-gray...