India, June 15 -- A British F-35B Lightning II fighter jet made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in Kerala on Saturday night after running low on fuel during a sortie over the Indian Ocean.

"Normal occurence of diversion by F-35. IAF fully aware and facilitated the aircraft for flight safety reasons. All assistance being given, and IAF is in coordination with all agencies," the Indian Air Force said in a statement.

The F-35B variant is designed for short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL), which enables it to operate from aircraft carriers without catapult systems.

However, it is not clear why the aircraft was unable to recover onto the Prince of Wales.

The F-35 programme, spearheaded by US defence c...