21-07-2025
UK fighter jet grounded in Kerala moved out of hangar after repairs, to fly out on July 22
After over a month-long uncertainty and speculation, the United Kingdom team took the grounded F-35B of the Royal Air Force, UK, out of the hangar of the Thiruvananthapuram international airport on Monday (July 21, 2025) after successfully completing over two-week-long maintenance on the fighter jet.
According to airport sources, the aircraft will be taken to its base station in the UK by the crew on Tuesday (July 22, 2025). A C17-Globmaster aircraft will land here on Tuesday to take back the 14-member expert team of engineers who arrived from the UK to attend to the grounded aircraft on July 6.
The fifth-generation stealth aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, has been grounded here since June 14 after it developed engineering issues during an emergency landing here on the night of June 14.
Though the British authorities have not officially communicated the details of the maintenance works they had carried out, it is reported that the auxiliary power unit of the aircraft developed some major engineering snags, necessitating the services of an expert team. Initially, the crew had tried to fix the glitches as soon as the combat jet made an emergency landing after running low on fuel at the Thiruvananthapuram airport but in vain.
The aircraft was later towed to the hangar facility at the airport on July 6 after an expert team arrived here.
Hefty parking fee
The British authorities have to pay a hefty amount as parking fees to the Thiruvananthapuram airport. The amount is fixed considering the size and weight of the aircraft, along with the number of days it stayed here and the amenities used by the crew during their stay at the airport.
It is estimated that the parking fee alone would amount to around ₹15,000-₹20,000 per day. The airport will collect parking fees for the aircraft for each day it has been stationed here since June 14, while the fee for using the hangar facility will be charged by AI Engineering Services Ltd., which owns the hangar and provides the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul facility.
