Sen. Mike Lee and other lawmakers react to the military misplacing an F-35 fighter jet

On Saturday afternoon, a Marine pilot was safely ejected from an F-35B Lightning II fighter jet in South Carolina, per Vice.

Joint Base Charleston put up two social media posts Sunday, the first saying, “We’re working with @MCASBeaufortSC to locate an F-35 that was involved in a mishap this afternoon. The pilot ejected safely. If you have any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35, please call the Base Defense Operations Center at 843-963-3600.”

The second tweet said, “Based on the jet’s last-known position and in coordination with the FAA, we are focusing our attention north of JB Charleston, around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion.”

A spokesman at Joint Base Charleston, Jeremy Huggins, said the fighter jet was “left in autopilot mode” after the pilot ejected. The duration of flight was not confirmed, though as of noon Monday, authorities are “certain it was no longer flying,” per NBC.

Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., spoke out on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the jet going missing.

Monday morning, Lee tweeted, “A Pentagon obsessed with funding abortion travel and unfairly attacking @SenTuberville is bound to lose a lot more than this F-35.”

Biggs also tweeted Monday morning, “How on earth did the Biden Administration lose track of an $80 million F-35 jet? What else are they losing?”

Mace, after tweeting about the safety of the ejected Marine pilot, said, “Now that I got that out of the way. How in the hell do you lose an F-35? How is there not a tracking device and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?”

She continued to express her frustration, saying, “no one USMC sent over to brief me and my staff had any answers. Shocker.”

Correction: An earlier headline said the Air Force misplaced the F-35, but it was the Marine Corps.