Finland’s Air Force has left one of its first F-35A fighters, JF-511, in the Azores after a minor avionics fault emerged during start-up on a ferry flight from the United States to Finland. The jet was part of a six-aircraft Finnish and Belgian detachment that paused on 15 September and resumed on 18 September, when five fighters and a KC-135 tanker continued the transatlantic move without the affected aircraft.
The fault-monitoring system detected the problem, and the crew attempted troubleshooting before shutting down the engine when a repair would have delayed the whole detachment. The Air Force is shipping the required spare part to the Azores, while the aircraft is expected to reach Finland later in autumn with the next group of F-35s rather than on a separate Atlantic crossing.
The detachment could not simply return the aircraft on its own, as the ferry route depends on aerial refuelling support. The incident affects the opening batch of Finland’s F-35 fleet, a programme of major operational significance as the air arm transitions to the type.