Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina called the Pentagon’s inability to answer questions about the loss of a F-35 “embarrassing” Tuesday.
The Marine Corps F-35B crashed following a Sunday mishap while on a training mission, according to WLTX.com. The fighter was later located about two hours away from Charleston after the military initially searched in the wrong location. (RELATED: ‘END The War’: Trump Says Biden Is ‘Dragging’ US Closer To ‘World War III’ After Giving Cluster Munitions To Ukraine)
“It was sort of embarrassing for the Pentagon,” Mace told “America Reports” co-host John Roberts. “I had a briefing yesterday with the Marine Corps from the Pentagon and they sent people over that could not answer a single question I had. They could not tell me at the time whether the jet was in the air or under the water. Come to find out, the transponder failed, they have not explained why it failed that, is the $80 million question today.”
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“When I was briefed by the Marine Corps yesterday, I asked if they knew how long the jet could last in the air on autopilot with the amount of fuel it had, they had no answers,” Mace added. “The public did not know if there was a public safety concern, and the public deserves greater transparency.”
Mace posted to social media about the loss, openly questioning why the Marines were unable to rapidly locate the crash site. During the search, she also joked about asking Pepsi and Netflix, referencing a documentary by the streaming service about a giveaway by the soft drink company where one person tried to claim a Marine Corps Harrier based on a commercial.
“I’m not talking about spilling national secrets on a classified aircraft, we are just talking about normal public safety, public emergency types of questions,” Mace continued. “The Pentagon just refused to answer and so you know, we have more questions than answers at this point, but I’m going to be demanding answers for South Carolina, for our local leaders to get to the bottom of it.”
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