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Expert team from U.K. to land in Kerala on Sunday to repair grounded F-35B

Ending weeks-long uncertainty, a Royal Air Force aircraft carrying an expert team of engineers will touch down at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport by Sunday noon to repair the grounded F-35B fighter jet of the Royal Air Force. The combat jet of the U.K. has remained grounded at the airport since June 14 after it made an emergency landing following technical glitches. According to sources, the team comprises around 20 engineers from the U.K. and the U.S., where the manufacturer Lockheed Martin is based.

The Royal Air Force aircraft that carries the expert team to Kerala will return soon after dropping the team here. The team will stay here for a few days exploring the possibility of repairing the grounded aircraft at the place where it is stationed now (bay number four of the domestic terminal of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport).

If the attempt fails, the U.K. team would consider towing the aircraft to the airport hangar. Dismantling some parts of the aircraft here and airlifting them back to the U.K. or to the U.S. would be considered only if these two options don’t work. Only after an inspection of the aircraft by the expert team, a final call on these options will be taken, said sources.

The continued grounding of the aircraft had caught media attention and subsequent speculation on its future. The celebrity status of the aircraft was used by Kerala Tourism on social media platforms with a catchy tagline, ‘Kerala, the destination you’ll never want to leave.’ The post went viral and was followed by a deluge of memes.

The aircraft made an emergency landing following adverse weather conditions in the Indian Ocean. It had serious engineering issues that could not be fixed by the airport crew in Thiruvananthapuram.