Washington: A US F-35 stealth bomber suffered millions of dollars in damage after colliding with a bird during take-off from an air base in Japan, the US Marine Corps has said in a statement. “On May 7, 2019 an F-35B with Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing aborted take-off due to a bird strike at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and safely taxied off the runway,” the statement said.
The pilot was not hurt in the incident, it said. Photographs circulating on social media showed what appeared to a kind of falcon stuck beneath the plane. The Marine Corps classified the incident as category “A,” meaning the damage is expected to exceed USD 2 mn.
