Pentagon Temporarily Halts F-35 Flight Operations After Crash

The U.S. Defense Department has temporarily suspended flight operations of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 after a crash prompted inspections of the fighter jet fleet.

The suspension by the Pentagon is to allow “a fleet-wide inspection of a fuel tube within the engine on all F-35 aircraft,” the Defense Department said in a statement Thursday. The F-35 is the costliest U.S. weapons system.

The inspection is “is driven from initial data from the ongoing investigation of the F-35B that crashed in the vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina” on Sept. 28, according to the statement.

Lockheed was down less than 1 percent at $333.95 a share at 9:58 a.m.