The U.S. Navy announced that it has recovered the F-35C Lightning II fighter that crashed into the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in January before sliding off and sinking into the South China Sea.
The service announced that a team from 7th Fleet's Task Force 75 and the Supervisor of Salvage and Diving embarked aboard the commercial diving vessel Picasso in order to recover the jet from a depth of 12,400 feet.
“The aircraft was recovered using a CURV-21, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which attached specialized rigging and lift lines to the aircraft,” the Navy's statement said.
Read Next: Ukraine's Fighter Ace ‘Ghost of Kyiv' May Be a Myth, But It's Lethal as War Morale
“The ship's crane lifting hook was then lowered to the seafloor and connected to the rigging, and then lifted the aircraft to the surface and hoisted it onboard Picasso,” it added.
USNI News was the first outlet to report that the wreckage had been recovered.
The announcement follows weeks of secrecy and speculation since the jet's crash on Jan. 24. The Navy said it was “making recovery operations arrangements” for the downed jet in the days after the crash but wouldn't give further details. A few days later, the Japanese Coast Guard posted a maritime navigational alert to stay clear of an area about 170 miles west of the Philippine island of Luzon due to “salvage operations … until further notice.”
Although the Vinson was likely operating…
