Is it true that the world's first female fighter pilot crashed a plane on her first flight?

For several years now, a photograph of a woman in military uniform has been circulating on the Internet, accompanied by a comment that her lack of professionalism led to the loss of a combat aircraft worth $100 million. We have checked the correctness of such publications.

Viral posts report that the first female aviator in world history to become a fighter pilot crashed a $100 million plane on its debut flight. Authors publications V some Russian-speaking Media provided details: the incident allegedly occurred in early 2022 on the American aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, and the woman was flying an F-35 fighter. The publications were accompanied by a video in which the crew can be heard furiously giving instructions to the pilot, but he (or she) fails to level the fighter and the car crashes on the deck of the ship.

At various times, popular publications about this appeared in Facebook, X, Instagram And "VKontakte", as well as in Telegram channels "Ax+"(1 million views at the time of writing this analysis), "Media Russia is not Moscow"(544,000), "Ax Live"(116,000), "Death note" (116,000) and "Leprosy"(116,000).

Indeed, on January 24, 2022, the world media bypassed news about the emergency in the South China Sea. An American F-35 fighter jet crashed into the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, injuring seven people, including the ejected pilot. IN press release The US Pacific Fleet did not indicate the gender of the pilot or other personal information of the affected military personnel. In the days that followed, tabloids and social media users circulated several alleged video recordings incidents, but none of them indicate that the pilot of the crashed plane was a woman.

Nevertheless, rumors about this appeared quite quickly. So, on the night of January 29, an English-speaking Twitter user (now X) with the username @TimeTravelAnon stated: "Sources aboard the USS Carl Vinson say the first female F-35 pilot in the U.S. Navy flew the aircraft that went overboard." The message was accompanied by a smiley face and a note: “This was a very simple parallel parking exercise.” The blogger also provides a screenshot notes about the incident in the British tabloid Daily Mail, but nothing was said there about the pilot. The X post is more like a stereotypical sexist joke about female driving. Soon similar publications went viral.

However, in the first few weeks after the incident, not a single official or person associated with the USS Carl Vinson publicly stated that a woman was at the controls of the fighter that crashed into the aircraft carrier. This did not happen subsequently - the name and gender of the pilot are kept secret (this is a common practice), and even in released a year later, the investigation had no details. The investigation, by the way, confirmed that the incident occurred due to a pilot error, but the pilot had the necessary qualifications.

However, a photo of the alleged culprit of the accident began to be published a week and a half after @TimeTravelAnon’s tweet. A significant role in the dissemination of the image was played by the Russian resource Avia.Pro, whose English-language publication dated February 7, became infected abroad. On the same day it appeared on YouTube video, where the text of this note was duplicated in audio format. The video received more than 200,000 views.

As shown by reverse image search using the service TinEye, the viral photo shows Lieutenant Colonel Christine Mau. American official sources really called her first woman was an F-35 fighter pilot. She first flew this aircraft in 2015, and before that she flew the F-15E.

But Mau is listed in all reports as a US Air Force pilot. 2022 incident happened with a US Navy aircraft, that is, another branch of the country's armed forces. Moreover, in 2017, after 20 years of service, Mau left for resignation and got busy teaching work. In 2022, fact-checkers of the Lead Stories project contacted with the pilot, and she said that she last flew the F-35 in April 2017, was never in the US Navy, never landed on an aircraft carrier and never crashed her planes.

Thus, neither the first woman was a fighter pilot (she was a Turkish woman back in 1936) Sabiha Gokcen), nor the first female F-35 fighter pilot, Christina Mau, crashed a plane in 2022 on an American aircraft carrier. Moreover, there is no direct or indirect evidence that the crashed plane was flown by a woman.

It wasn't the last happening, when social media users found a “female trace” in F-35 incidents where there was none. So, in 2023, in the skies over South Carolina, a pilot ejected, leaving your plane in the air in autopilot mode. The fighter is missing, and the pilot is on social networks announced a panicked woman - and again, indirect evidence was the silence of the command, which did not disclose the personal data of the serviceman. Later it turned outthat there was a man at the helm. Apparently, such conclusions are based on gender stereotypes associated with driving. The impression of fresh news could also have played a role - in the same January 2022 at sea for the first time An American aircraft carrier under the command of a woman left, and there were F-35s on board the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Cover photo: social networks

Not true

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