F-35 Fighter Jet Forced To Land In Texas; Second Time Pentagon’s $396 Billion Weapons Program Grounded This Year For Engine Trouble

An F-35 fighter jet was forced to land in Lubbock, Texas on Monday, March 11.

Two F-35 fighter jets were heading to a Nevada air base yesterday, when one made an unscheduled landing after a caution light came on in the cockpit, according to a Pentagon spokesman and the plane's maker, Lockheed Martin Corp.

The jet that was forced to land was flying from the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth, Texas to Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas on Monday.

A caution warning light came on in the cockpit mid-flight, forcing the pilot to land at the nearest airport.

Spokesman Michael Rein said the pilot landed safely.

The second F-35 jet landed as scheduled at the Nevada air base, according to the Associated Press.

Rein said that a team of Lockheed maintenance experts was on their way to examine the next-generation stealth fighter plane at Lubbock airport, about 300 miles from Fort Worth. It is still unknown what caused the light to come on.

Rein said the police were securing the fighter jet at the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport, and that the plane would continue its flight to Nellis Air Force Base or return to the Lockheed plant, depending on what the engineers discover upon examining the plane.

Gary Loftus, the airport operations manager at Lubbock, said the expensive F-35 fighter was parked on an airport ramp protected within a fence.

"Nobody can get to the airplane," he assured the public.

Loftus mentioned that this was the first time an F-35 fighter has landed at the commercial airport.

In an annual Government Accountability Office report released on Monday, the F-35 weapons program was reportedly showing progress in development, production and technical issues.

The single-engine, single-seat plane has received some criticism recently, although it is being developed for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and international partners Britain, Canada, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

The spokesman for the Pentagon's $396 billion F-35 program, Joe DellaVedova confirmed that the jet was forced to land after the warning light appeared, but hasn't yet released any additional information.

The F-35 fighter is part of the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program and is currently is over budget.

The F-35 aircraft line has been grounded twice in 2013 for engine issues.