The US military on Monday evening said searchers had found the wreckage of an F-35 jet in South Carolina, one day after the Marine Corps inexplicably lost track of it when the pilot ejected with a parachute.

Joint Base Charleston said in a statement that searchers who had been looking for the missing warplane located debris in Williamsburg County, north of Charleston. A spokesperson for the US Marine Corps later confirmed that it was from the jet.

“Members of the community should avoid the area as the recovery team secures the debris field,” the statement said, adding that Joint Base Charleston was handing command of the incident to the Marine Corps “as they begin the recovery process”.

The discovery came after an array of government and civilian agencies had spent more than 24 hours searching for the missing F-35. Joint Base Charleston had even made an unusual plea for help, releasing a phone number for members of the public to call with information about the lost plane.

New York Times News Service