UK Fighter Jet stuck in India for five weeks of leaves for Australia

A British at the cutting edge of the technology that has become a subject of jokes and memes after being blocked in an Indian airport for more than five weeks finally left after repairs.

The F-35B is now in the air and on the way to Darwin in Australia, a spokesman for the airport at the BBC told.

The jet landed on June 14 at Thiruvananthapuram airport in the southern state of the Kerala where it was diverted after meeting bad weather during an exit in the Indian Ocean. He then developed a technical problem.

Its prolonged presence on Indian soil has aroused curiosity and raised questions about how such a modern aircraft could remain blocked in a foreign country for so long.

In a statement on Tuesday morning, the British High Commissioner confirmed the departure of the plane. “A British engineering team, deployed since July 6, has completed repairs and security checks, allowing the plane to resume active service.”

The plane was part of the HMS Prince of Wales fleet. The officials did not say why he was flying for Darwin, but it is probably because the flagship carrier of the Royal Navy is still in the region.

In the past few days, the HMS Prince of Wales has published updates and photos on X (formerly Twitter) of the joint exercises which he has carried out off the coast of Australia.

After the plane could not return, the ships of the ship had visited it to repair it.

But as they could not repair it, the British Defense Ministry said a fortnight when they had deployed a team of 14 engineers “at Thiruvanthapuram airport to assess and repair the F-35B plane”.

There had been speculation that if the technicians had not repaired the plane, it should be partially dismantled and carried out on a larger loading plane such as a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.

The F-35B are very advanced stealth jets, built by Lockheed Martin, and are appreciated for their short take-off and vertical landing capacity. The case of the stranded jet of $ 110 million (80 million pounds sterling) was lifted in the House of Commons.

In India, images of the “Solitaire F-35B”, parked on the Tarmac and soaked by the rains of the Kerala monsoon, made a subject of jokes and memes.

A viral position joked by saying that the jet had been on sale on an online site at an extremely competitive price of $ 4 million. The list said that the jet included features such as “automatic parking, new tires, new battery and an automatic pistol to destroy off -traffic at traffic”.

One user on X said that the jet deserved Indian citizenship as it had been in the country long enough, while another suggested that India should start to invoice the rent and that the Kohinoor diamond would be the most appropriate payment.

The Tourism Department of the Government of Kerala also joined the pleasure with a position on X which said “Kerala, the destination that you will never want to leave”.

The post included a photograph generated by the AI of an F-35B standing on the track with coconut palms in the background. The text joked by saying that, like many visitors to the state nicknamed “God’s Own Country” in tourist brochures, the jet also seemed reluctant to leave its picturesque environment.

Tuesday, after taking off, X users published messages saying “Adios” in the jet as he left “after taking advantage of more than a month of vacation in the own country of God”.

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