its probably circling Ukraine ..........

Is there a reward?........

That area is a swamp. It is easy to loose crashed plane there. I believe that there is also a lost atomic weapon somewhere nearby that was never found.

Surely they have tracked it with ADS-B or COSPAS.

Oh...

Wait...

...hmm

Found some distance away...

I's not the only jet to fly unoccupied to a crash site, after pilot ejection. I heard it flew a 'fair distance' before impact. NOT good.

USAF is asking/begging people to stay away from the wreckage. Curious looky-loos and souvenir hunters love to 'stomp-all-over' crash sites... picking-up/moving stuff and 'taking stuff for souvenirs'. These folks can disturb a mishap sight to such a degree that 'investigative value is lost'. Also composite aircraft can have millions of needle sharp composite [boron, graphite, etc] fibers sticking-out everywhere... just waiting to 'porcupine' and break-off in these unaware interlopers. Painful... I still have a few boron needles in my hand from a '15C crash site.

Ahhhhhhhh, but 'The jungle telegraph' always gets out as fast as phone calls and texts... and civilians can move faster to the prize than 'rats-to-a-block-of-cheese'... Yeah... much faster than a MIL security-team can helo-in. Arrrrggggg.

PS: without electronic enhancement... a stealthy jet like the '35... should disappear from surveillance radars in a 'blink'.

Regards, Wil Taylor
o Trust - But Verify!
o For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible. [variation, Stuart Chase]
o Unfortunately, in science what You 'believe' is irrelevant. ["Orion", HBA forum]
o Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand everything." -Anton Chekhov

Wil - I suspect the USAF doesn't want people picking up bits with the super secret LO coatings, then putting them on eBay.

SWC 19 Sep 23 22:30... Yep... That too.

I think this same problem is universal... When Columbia disintegrated completely over [mostly] east central TX and LA... NASA was acutely aware of the problem of scrounger-collectors and warned dire consequences of high fines and jail time for stealing US property. Thankfully citizens stepped-up and were VERY supportive of debris recovery efforts.

And we all knew jokes and cartoons were inevitable...







Regards, Wil Taylor
o Trust - But Verify!
o For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible. [variation, Stuart Chase]
o Unfortunately, in science what You 'believe' is irrelevant. ["Orion", HBA forum]
o Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand everything." -Anton Chekhov