US Navy sailors charged for allegedly recording and sharing videos of F-35 crash

Four senior US Navy Sailors and one junior sailor have been accused of leaking videos of an F-35 crashing into the deck of an aircraft carrier.

The videos showed various angles of the crash, which occurred on 24 January on the USS Carl Vinson. The pilot and six sailors were injured as a result of the crash. The ship was stationed in the Philippines at the time of the incident.

The sailors are being charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice's Article 92, which deals with individuals who have failed to obey an order or regulation. If the sailors are found to have violated Article 92, they would then be subject to court martial.

Though multiple videos were reportedly recorded, only one has leaked online.

The video – which military officials confirmed depicts the crash – shows the jet approaching the ship’s flight deck. Sailors can be heard yelling “wave off,” which is a way of telling the pilot to take another pass before landing on the ship.

However, the pilot does not, and the plane smashes into the ship’s flight deck, skidding along the surface and catching fire. After a momentary slide across the deck, the jet fell off the ship and into the South China Sea.

A different angle on the crash appeared to show the pilot ejecting as the fiery jet slid across the aircraft carrier. The Navy has not confirmed that an ejection did take place.

Another video shows the F-35 from a low angle just as it impacts the flight deck, though little else beyond the jet’s approach and initial contact can be seen in the footage.

Photos and video of the incident – including shots showing parts of the jet floating in the sea – were eventually leaked onto social media.

Rob “Butch” Bracknell, a former US and current military lawyer, spoke with USNI about the charges the sailors are facing.

“The sailors being charged under Article 92 are either being charged on a general orders violation theory or as a dereliction – as in they negligently failed to execute a duty not to record and leak onboard footage,” he told the publication. “There are two reasons to charge this conduct: Leaking footage of a mishap might reveal platform or performance vulnerabilities to an adversary – maybe not in this case – but they want to deter the conduct in other cases and they want to deter sailors recording onboard systems with personal cell phones and broadcasting them.”