00:00For two weeks now, this image of the world's most advanced fighter jet, quietly parked at the Triwantum Airport in Kerala, has hooked Indians, especially aviation and defence enthusiasts.
00:10This jet belongs to the British Royal Navy.
00:13It landed in Kerala after developing a technical glitch while flying over the Arabian Sea, and it's been grounded there ever since.
00:19The striking sight of the jet sitting out on an open tarmac, guarded by a CISF soldier with a Tawar rifle, has sparked a flurry of questions, but answers, those have been harder to come by.
00:29Here's what we do know though.
00:34The F-35 naval fighter took off from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales on June 14.
00:39It was on a routine flight outside India's air defence identification zone, the stretch of airspace closely watched by the Indian military.
00:46At some point that night, the jet encountered a fault that prevented it from returning to the carrier.
00:51With limited options, the pilot decided to divert to the jet's designated backup landing site, the Triwantum Airport.
00:57He declared an emergency and contacted the Indian Air Force, which coordinated the emergency landing.
01:01Since then, the F-35 has been grounded.
01:04It's believed to have suffered a critical failure that's left it unable to fly.
01:08Crews flown in by helicopter from the Prince of Wales have reportedly tried to fix the issue, but haven't succeeded so far.
01:13Interestingly, the British Navy has, until now, declined India's offer to move the jet to a sheltered hangar.
01:19But that might change.
01:21A 40-member British team is expected to arrive soon, carrying specialised towing and repair equipment.
01:26That suggests that the hangar offer may now be on table.
01:29But that brings me to my big question.
01:31How complex is it really to repair a 5th generation fighter like the F-35, especially when it's stranded on foreign soil?
01:38Well, you know, it reminds me of that nursery rhyme that we all learnt in school, the Humpty Dumpty story.
01:44You know, all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.
01:49And that doesn't speak very highly of the serviceability of the F-35, the fact that it's, you know, it's not something that is easily repairable.
01:59Combat jets come in with a lot of inherent durability, the fact that they're supposed to withstand these kind of conditions.
02:08But what we are given to understand now is that the British are going to fly another team in, about 40 people.
02:13They're going to get a specialised towing tractor, which is something called a spotting dolly on US aircraft carriers and all that,
02:21which is a small compact tractor, which is very low slung, very powerful thing.
02:26They're going to tow that aircraft into the Air India hangar, where they can possibly look at repairing it.
02:34And if not, there's always that option of a semi-SKD flyaway kit, which is basically you take the wings off,
02:42you roll the jet into a C-17 or a C-5 and fly it back home to king and country.
02:49So that's that then. Is this F-35 going to be taking off on its own?
02:52Or is it going to be taking off inside an airplane?
