By Daily Mail Reporter
Published: 17:06 GMT, 25 January 2022 | Updated: 23:47 GMT, 25 January 2022

The U.S. faces a race to beat China in recovering an F-35 stealth fighter that plunged into the South China Sea on Monday after what the Navy termed a 'landing mishap' aboard the USS Carl Vinson.

The pilot was forced to eject and seven military personnel in total were injured.

The $100m warplane, customised for naval operations, plunged overboard - making it the second time in three months that an F-35 has been lost at sea.

'The U.S. Navy is making recovery operations arrangements for the F-35C aircraft involved in the mishap aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the South China Sea, Jan. 24,' a spokesperson for the US 7th Fleet told DailyMail.com.

'We cannot speculate on what the PRC's intentions are on this matter.'

It leaves the Navy with a complex salvage operation if it is avoid its most sophisticated warplane, crammed with futuristic technology, falling into the hands of the People's Republic of China.

The F-35C is the only long-range stealth strike fighter designed to operate from aircraft carriers.

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The Pentagon said two U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Groups, led by the Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, began operations in the South China Sea on Sunday.

The carriers entered the disputed sea for training as Taiwan reported a new Chinese air force incursion at the top of the waterway.

This is only the second major mishap involving an F-35 of any kind operating from an aircraft carrier, following the loss of the British F-35B Joint Strike Fighter in the Mediterranean last year.

Earlier this month, a South Korean pilot was forced to make an emergency 'belly landing' in an F-35A after suffering a malfunction in the air.

Landing gear on the jet failed to extend but instead of ejecting, the pilot decided to land the US-made craft at an airbase on its belly.

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