In late July, the US military decided to temporarily ground the F-35 fleet due to an ejection seat problem. Something turned out to be wrong with some explosion cartridges that shoot the seat out of the cockpit in an emergency. The Royal Netherlands Air Force then decided to urgently inspect all Dutch aircraft.
At one Dutch fighter jet – which is stationed in America for the training of Dutch fighter pilots – an explosion cartridge was replaced as a precaution. State Secretary Christophe van der Maat (Defence) reports this to the House of Representatives. It is part of the so-called ejection seat initiator cartridges.
According to the American ejection seat manufacturer Martin Baker, the chance that the ejection seat would not work is very small. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that all F-35s are checked. The Netherlands has eight training aircraft in America: the explosion pattern on one of them has been renewed just to be sure.
Of the twenty F-35s that are in the Netherlands, the Air Force has now urgently inspected six. They are all in order, says Van der Maat. The remaining 14 fighters will be checked within three months.
Worldwide, more than a thousand F-35s with the Martin Baker ejection seats have been examined. The explosion pattern was not faulty on any aircraft, but the part was replaced on a small number of aircraft as a precaution. This also applies to the Dutch training aircraft that is located at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, USA.