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Earlier this week, the United States military raised some eyebrows when it asked members of the public to help it track down an F-35 it somehow managed to lose track of after its pilot ejected during a flight. It took longer than it probably should’ve to find the wreckage in a rural area of South Carolina near the home of a man who treated us to an interview for the ages while recalling what he heard before the crash.
The F-35 Lightning II in question had taken off from Joint Base Charleston on Sunday before a “mishap” forced the person in the cockpit to bail. However, the fighter jet was reportedly still on autopilot at the time, and officials were unable to determine where the aircraft with an approximately $100 million price tag ended up when everything was said and done.
The mystery was apparently solved on Monday night, as members of the military set up shop around two hours north of the aforementioned base after an “extensive debris field” was located in the woods in Williamsburg County.
WBTW subsequently headed to the area and landed an interview with Randolph White, a 72-year-old retired paper mill worker who got a very unexpected surprise when the plane flew over his home. White said the remote area where he resides is typically “nice and quiet and peaceful,” but that certainly wasn’t the case on Sunday based on his recollection of what unfolded while he was shaving in the bathroom.
Witness to the F-35 crash, Randolph White, imitates what he heard when it went down (WBTW) 😂 pic.twitter.com/1I0hdRhKiU
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) September 20, 2023
White did his best R2-D2 impression while trying to describe the sound he heard when the plane passed before coming down in the woods, which generated a shockwave that shook his house. He didn’t actually see what caused the noise and surmised it may have been a meteorite, but eventually learned it was the missing F-35 when the people tasked with securing and recovering the wreckage descended upon the area the following day.
Congratulations to Randolph White on joining “I Like Turtles” Kid, Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis, and the Alabama Leprechaun Crew on the list of Local News Interview Legends.