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A comment on F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with engineers before crash. Parent comment

Re:F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with e... by estearum on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @10:22AM (#45040129)
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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Re:F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with e... by a_mechanic on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @11:33AM (#45041101)
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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Re:F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with e... by estearum on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @11:52AM (#45041343)
Username checks out!

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

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Re:F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with e... by a_mechanic on Thursday August 28, 2025 @11:20AM (#45053323)
It would depend on how many months the barrel was subjected to thermal cycling. A more likely cause would be a technician leaving the cap off the barrel during a rain storm (noted in the report).
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Re:F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with e... by fransje26 on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @11:01AM (#45040661)
> 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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Re:F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with e... by mrguyorama on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @05:41PM (#45045649)
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.
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Re:F-35 pilot held 50-minute airborne conference call with e... by solid_fuel on Thursday August 28, 2025 @01:48AM (#45048856)
Sabotage vs incompetence is a tricky question to balance. The DoD has undergone a lot of controversial leadership changes recently, and it is entirely likely that people have now been promoted beyond their level of confidence.
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