According to NBC News, September 18th, The A-35 lightning II jet lost its pilot and was roaming on auto pilot for hours. The jet had been set to auto pilot after the pilot ejected safely and was taken to the hospital. NBC News reported that the spokesman at joint base Charleston, Jeremy Huggins, was not sure if the plane was still in autopilot mode.

Joint Base Charleston put a request on social media for any information on the location of the missing A-35 jet. The remains of the jet were found after a little over 24 hours, as wreckage in rural South Carolina. After Joint Base Charleston launched a hunt for the missing aircraft, law enforcement reported they had found the A- 35 in Williamsburg County, which is about a 2 hour drive North East from the base. NBC News stated, after J.J. Gertler, a senior analyst at Teal Group was asked how they could lose track of it, he answered that the heat from the jets might have, “cooked the electronics, the wires, cut off power to the transponder, among other things,” in the cockpit. The Marines released a statement saying that Eric M.Smith, the acting commander of the Marines, had directed all Marine Corps aviation units to conduct a two-day, “pause in operations,” this week to discuss aviation safety matters and best practices.

As explained by USA Today, the current investigation is labeled as a, “Class-A mishap,” which happens when damage reaches 2.5 million dollars or more. ABC News has an estimate which says the A-35 is worth about 100 million dollars. ABC News also   mentioned that the pilot of the A-35 that went missing has not been named, but they were told he was in a stable condition without any serious injuries. No civilian injuries have been reported from the incident.