Yikes. USMC F-35B collides with KC-130 during refueling, all people survive...

[Alamo]

...not so much the airframes.

F-35B pilot ejected and was recovered, being treated for injuries, his plane crashed in desert near Salton Sea.

KC-130 ended up landing in a farm field near an airport, all 8 onboard survived.

Pictures of KC-130 show it's basically intact, but all propeller blades are missing from engines 3 and 4 (right wing), and at least one propeller blade is missing from engine 1 (outboard left wing). I wonder how many of those blades went AWOL as part of the mid-air, and how many from landing in the dirt? Yikes again.

Some news reports say the F-35B pilot and co-pilot ejected safely. All F-35 variants are single seaters, so unless it was R2D2, no copilot was involved on that airframe.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/30/military-jet-department-of-defense-california/

https://www.foxnews.com/us/military-jet-crashes-mid-air-collision-refueling

https://kesq.com/news/2020/09/29/mi...-aircraft-makes-emergency-landing-in-thermal/

 

[maxwelhse]

I can already hear the 4 hour Nutnfancy video in process...

 

[Alamo]

Somebody was listening:

[video=youtube;ne5XyJfYXj0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne5XyJfYXj0[/video]

 

[4651feeder]

[video=youtube;u19R0zfusiQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u19R0zfusiQ&t=618s[/video]

Juan Brown's summary

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Salton Sea was where they dropped a pantload of dummy nukes (no fissile material), testing tail configurations. They had unexpected difficulty getting the bombs to fall where they were dropped. Later, into the 50s and 60s, it was a popular vacation and recreation area, but it dried out so much it was too salty for any fish to survive.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

It'll be about a week before everyone unclenches enough to change knickers