A state-of-the-art British fighter jet that had been stuck at an Indian airport for more than five weeks is now airborne and on its way to Darwin in Australia, an airport spokesman told the BBC.
The F-35B was pulled back from the hangar on Monday after it was deemed fit to fly after repairs.
The jet first landed on 14 June at Thiruvananthapuram airport in the southern state of Kerala where it was diverted after it ran into bad weather during a sortie in the Indian Ocean. It then developed a technical snag.
Its prolonged presence on Indian soil sparked curiosity and raised questions about how such a modern aircraft could remain stranded in a foreign country for so long.
The plane was part of the fleet of HMS Prince of Wales. Officials have not said why it was flying to Darwin, but it’s most likely because the Royal Navy’s flagship carrier is still in the region.
For the past few days, HMS Prince of Wales has been posting updates and photos on X (formerly Twitter) from the joint exercises it has been conducting off the coast of Australia.
After the plane was unable to return, engineers from the ship had visited it to fix it.
But they were unable to repair it, and a fortnight back, the UK ministry of defence said they had deployed a team of 14 engineers “to Thiruvananthapuram airport to assess and repair the F-35B aircraft”.
There had been speculation that if the technicians failed to repair the aircraft, it would have to be dismantled and carried out in a bigger cargo plane such as a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
Over the past two weeks – including on Monday – the UK high commission in India and the defence authorities responded to the BBC’s messages saying they would not share details of repairs.
F-35Bs are highly advanced stealth jets, built by Lockheed Martin, and are prized for their short take-off and vertical landing capability.
Images of the “lonely F-35B”, parked on the tarmac and soaked by the Kerala monsoon rains, made it a subject of jokes and memes with many suggesting that it did not want to leave the scenic state of Kerala, described as “God’s own country” in tourism brochures.
The case of the stranded $110m (£80m) jet was also raised in the House of Commons.
