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A man in South Carolina performed a strange impression of what he heard when an F-35 fighter jet crashed near his home after its pilot ejected.

The US military is scrambling to clean up a large debris field in rural South Carolina after a pilot ejected from his cockpit on Sunday.

The pilot parachuted to safety, landing in a suburban backyard. The plane continued soaring through the sky for about 60 miles before crashing near Indiantown.

Local station WBTW News13 in Florence, South Carolina tracked down a local, who gave a bizarre impression

Randolph White, a 72-year-old retired mill worker who lives in a remote part of Williamsburg County, heard the jet crash just miles from his home while he was shaving in the bathroom.

White described the noise as ‘between a screech and a whistle.’ He then demonstrated the noise.

‘I said what in the world is this? I heard a boom, and my whole house shook,’ White said.

The startled South Carolinian said he first thought it was a meteor, before realizing it was an aircraft.

‘If it was an airplane, it needed to be reported,’ White said. ‘That thing was flying too low.’

Officials have said little about the accident, and a military investigation is currently underway. Armed guards and large red warning signs now mark off a restricted part of Old Georgetown Road close to the crash site.

The US Marine Corp said the pilot was flying a training flight when he was ‘forced to eject.’

In 2022, the US Air Force temporarily grounded the F-35S due to issues with its auto-eject function. The pilot on Sunday was flying an F-35B, which reportedly does not have the same issue.

It is unclear if the pilot manually ejected himself, or if he was auto-ejected.

It also remains unclear how the plane kept flying for nearly 60 miles after the ejection.

‘It needs to be investigated, and the public needs to know what really happened,’ White said. ‘It shouldn’t be a secret what happened, because it could have been a missed disaster.’

Others asked how the military briefly lost the $100million warplane in the South Carolina woods.

‘How in the hell do you lose an F-35?’ asked South Carolina Rep Nancy Mace. ‘How is there not a tracking device and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?’

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