Alaska, US:

A US Air Force fighter jet crashed during a training exercise at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska on Tuesday. The pilot flying the single-seat F-35 fighter was safe after bailing out. A video of the crash was widely posted on social media, where the aircraft can be seen vertically descending from the air and flipping before it crashed.

The crash was followed by a large explosion, with fire rising several meters up in the air. The pilot, who ejected the plane on time, was seen descending on the ground with the help of a parachute.

BREAKING: F-35 has crashed in Alaska pic.twitter.com/ZLqlADWWbU

— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) January 29, 2025

The pilot experienced an “in-flight malfunction,” and was able to eject from the aircraft, US Air Force Colonel Paul Townsend, commander of the 354th Fighter Wing, told a news conference, according to a report from the Associated Press.

The crash reportedly happened while landing during a training exercise. The incident on Tuesday afternoon resulted in “significant damage” to the F-35 Lightning II aircraft, according to Eielson Air Force Base.

The pilot was safe and taken to Bassett Army Hospital, according to the statement.

The F-35 is the most expensive US defence program and Lockheed Martin’s biggest revenue generator, contributing about 30 per cent of its bottom line. The fighter aircraft is known for flying over 12 hours, reaching almost anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in a single flight.

“I can assure you the United States Air Force will conduct a thorough investigation in hopes to minimize the chances of such occurrences from happening again,” Townsend said in the statement.

This is not the first incident when an F-35 crashed mid-air in the US. In May 2024, an F-35 fighter jet on its way from Texas to Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles crashed after the pilot stopped to refuel in New Mexico. The pilot was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

In October 2024, a pilot was accused of ejecting from an F-35 aircraft when he didn’t need to, causing the fighter to fly unmanned for 11 minutes before it crashed in rural South Carolina in 2023.

The Pentagon is reportedly planning to spend $1.7 trillion more on the F-35 program, including buying 2,500 planes in the coming decades.
 

Scientists working on a research ship in the Arctic Ocean may have discovered a giant underwater volcano. According to The Independent, the crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Healy were working on a project to map the seafloor off the coast of Alaska when they found a new volcano-like formation deep in the ocean waters. The volcano-like structure sits more than 1,600 meters from the water’s surface and scientists have detected a possible gas plume rising from it. However, as the structure is so far under the water, it poses no threat to those on land. 

“These findings are exciting and offer insight into what may exist beneath the ocean’s surface, much of which is unknown in this region,” said Captain Meghan McGovern from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), per The Independent. 

The Cutter Healy is the Coast Guard’s only icebreaker designed to support research. The research teams included members from the National Science Foundation, the University of New Hampshire, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

The recent trip was part of a larger project called the Alaskan Arctic Coast Port Access Route Study, which was enacted to evaluate the need for establishing vessel routing measures. The mission’s actual aim was to ensure that ships using these seas avoid clashes with other ships or underwater hazards.

The Healy has since returned to Seattle, Washington. It left Washington for Arctic deployment in June.

“It’s an honour supporting such diverse research missions in the northern high latitudes while working towards enhancing navigation safety in a region where soundings are sparse,” said the Healy’s Commanding Officer Captain Michele Schallip.

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“As scientific interest in the Arctic Ocean Basin grows, Healy is on the front-line providing access to the scientific community facilitating Arctic research opportunities while inspiring future chief scientists. Our crew remains committed to ensuring we are ready to meet the challenges unique to operating in the austere environment to see the completion of these vital missions,” he added. 

Underwater volcanoes, also known as submarine volcanoes or seamounts, do not produce the spectacular eruption events of some of their land counterparts, but undersea volcanic activity is a constant process that shapes the features of the ocean, per Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration. Some oceanographers estimate that there may be as many as one million volcanoes on the Pacific Ocean floor alone – roughly 750 times the number on dry land.

In this June 16, 2020, image released by the North American Aerospace Defence Command, a Russian Tu-95 bomber, top, is intercepted by a U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter off the coast of Alaska. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Two Chinese and two Russian long-range bombers were tracked flying over international waters near Alaska and U.S. and Canadian fighter jets were sent up in response, their joint aerospace command said.

The Chinese and Russian military activity on July 24 was not seen as a threat, the North American Aerospace Defence Command, known as NORAD, said.

“NORAD will continue to monitor competitor activity near North America and meet presence with presence,” the command said in a news release.

While Russia’s military has long been active in the north Pacific, China has emerged as a new actor in recent years as its growing navy and air force expands their presence farther from the country’s shores.

Chinese naval ships have showed up in international waters near Alaska, most recently in mid-July when the Coast Guard spotted four ships in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) from the shore.

In the latest incident, the Chinese H-6 and Russian Tu-95 aircraft were flying in the North American U.S. Air Defence Identification Zone, an area beyond U.S. and Canadian airspace in which those countries require aircraft to be identified for national security reasons.

The Japanese military has grown increasingly concerned about joint China-Russia drills with ships and warplanes as a potential threat to the security of Japan and the region.

A fleet of Russian and Chinese warplanes including Tu-95s and H-6s were seen flying together last December over the waters between Japan and Korea, the Japanese Defence Ministry said.

A 52-year-old man died and another was seriously injured after falling 1,000 feet off a steep Alaska mountain in Denali National Park. According to The Independent, the two-person climbing team was ascending a technical route on Mount Johnson when they fell from the peak on April 25. Park officials said that Robbi Mecus died of injuries sustained in the fall while climbing a route on Mt Johnson, known as “the Escalator”. They added that the approximately 5,000-foot route involves navigating a mix of steep rock, ice and snow.

The other climber, a 30-year-old woman from California, was seriously injured. She was rescued on Friday and flown to an Anchorage hospital, park officials said, as per the outlet. Another climbing party on the route witnessed the fall and alerted the Alaska Regional Communication Center at approximately 10:45 pm, the National Park Service said in a statement.

“The reporting party then descended to the accident victims and confirmed one climber had died in the fall. The responders dug a snow cave and attended to the surviving climber’s injuries throughout the night,” the statement read. 

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On Friday, a rescue helicopter and two mountaineering rangers arrived in the area and were able to rescue the injured woman. “Together, the ranger and injured patient were short-hauled out to a flat glacier staging area, and then loaded into the helicopter for the flight to Talkeetna,” according to the statement. “The patient was transferred to a LifeMed air ambulance at the Talkeetna State Airport for further care,” it added. 

The helicopter and rangers returned to the mountain later to recover the body of the climber who died. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Meanwhile, Denali National Park and Preserve is about 386km north of Anchorage. In 2022, solo Australian climber Matthias Riimi, 35, was reported dead four days after he went missing on Denali. The same year, a Japanese climber died after falling through an ice bridge into a crevasse on Mount Hunter. In June 2022, Fernando Birman, 48, a climber from New Jersey, also died at an elevation of 19,700ft while trying to reach the top of the mountain.