What we know about the Marine Corps F-35 crash, backyard ejection and what went wrong

By TARA COPP
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The crash of an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter aircraft in South Carolina over the weekend has raised numerous questions about what prompted the pilot to eject after experiencing a malfunction and how the $100 million warplane was able to keep flying pilotless for 60 miles before crashing. The Marine Corps’ variant of the F-35 has an auto-eject function on its ejection seat, so some are wondering whether the malfunction the pilot experienced was the seat itself. Another major question is how the aircraft continued flying and why the pilot bailed out — if the bailout was intentional — of a plane that was able to keep operating for that long.