The British Royal Navy’s F-35B fighter jet will fly out of Thiruvananthapuram airport on Tuesday after remaining grounded here for five weeks.
The glitch in the jet’s hydraulic system has been fixed by a 14-member team of experts from the UK.
Sources told The Telegraph that the defence ministries of both India and the UK have given their final clearance, paving the way for the jet to fly back home on Tuesday.
The F-35B, which was part of the HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group, had conducted sorties around 100 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala in the second week of June along with the Indian Navy.
Adverse weather conditions and low fuel had forced it to make an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport on June 14.
Initially, the technical team at the frigate tried to rectify the snag, but failed. On July 6, a 24-member contingent, including 14 technical experts from the British Royal Air Force, arrived from the UK.
The jet, which was parked at the Air India hangar, was brought out on Monday after the hydraulic snag was repaired.
“The airport authorities had decided to charge ₹20,000 per day as parking fee. The hangar facility belonging to Air India would be charging a separate amount. In all likelihood, the F-35B will be flying back to the UK on Tuesday,” a source at Thiruvananthapuram airport told The Telegraph.
The source added that Globemaster, a military transport aircraft, would arrive on Wednesday to take back the technical team to the UK.
Known to be one of the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world and worth over $110 million, the F-35B had sparked huge interest in India. The jet’s prolonged presence in the country had also fuelled debates in the UK Parliament on how such a modern aircraft could develop a snag that took more than a month to be fixed.