Image source: topwar.ru
The incident occurred at Miramar Air Force Base in California. The F-35C Lightning II of the United States Marine Corps, assigned to the 311th Marine Fighter-Assault Squadron (VMFA) at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, broke (or self-folded) the nose landing gear during parking shortly after a training flight. At the time of the incident, the aircraft was at Naval Air Station Fallon.
As confirmed by a specialized Internet resource theaviationist.com,
The photos appear to be authentic and not digitally altered. And based on the details that we were able to collect, the emergency F-35C is a CF-89/170109 airframe with the encoding "WL-04". The plane was parked under a canopy after returning from an uneventful training flight on January 26, 2024. According to an unverified report provided to us, after the aircraft shut down without problems, the pilot began to descend the ladder when the nose landing gear began to slowly retract.
And then the following happened:
Upon reaching the midpoint, the nose landing gear was completely formed. The photos show that the aircraft is supported by the fairing of the electron-optical guidance system - without visible damage. As far as we know, this should be the first report of the “collapse” of the front landing gear of the F-35C, since such incidents have so far occurred only on the B variants
Image source: topwar.ru
Journalists in the United States have made a request to the relevant services of the Fallon Naval Air Base for confirmation of the incident and additional information. No clarifications have been received so far.