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F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with engineers before crash

(www.cnn.com)
278 points Michelangelo11 | 5 comments | 27 Aug 25 11:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.626s | source
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shrubble ◴[27 Aug 25 13:40 UTC] No.45039529[source]▶
If a third of the hydraulic fluid was water, it was like that meme video of the woman who added washer fluid to the car’s oil - no way was that going to work properly.
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1. estearum ◴[27 Aug 25 14:22 UTC] No.45040129[source]▶
I'm surprised no one is mentioning this, and the fact the article says this is the second of such incidents...

I don't know if this is what actually happened, but it would appear to be a very effective method of sabotage... Simply putting some water in the hydraulic fluid container destined for an F35 is an extremely high risk-adjusted ROI for any saboteurs.

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2. fransje26 ◴[27 Aug 25 15:01 UTC] No.45040661[source]▶
> very effective method of sabotage.

No need for sabotage on the F-35. It's perfectly capable of destroying itself without any third-party interference.

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3. a_mechanic ◴[27 Aug 25 15:33 UTC] No.45041101[source]▶
For counterbalance to this point, it is very common for water to get into hydraulic fluid. Moisture from air condenses in containers when they transition from hot to cold environments.
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4. estearum ◴[27 Aug 25 15:52 UTC] No.45041343[source]▶
Username checks out!

That’s interesting. Can this effect pretty easily achieve the reported 30% water content?

5. mrguyorama ◴[27 Aug 25 21:41 UTC] No.45045649[source]▶
The F35 is deployed at scale and has fairly normal accident rates for a new, maintenance heavy plane. You just don't hear about every single F16 that crashes.