Originally Posted by
rickair7777
My buddy with insight says it was operating in LO mode, and the IFF (transponder) malfunctioned coincident with the ejection. So ATC presumably lost track.
The flight may have passed into an area in which the controller spilled some mayonaise on his screen. While the controller was routing other traffic around the spilled mayo, he couldn't see the missing F35.
Common problem. It could have been worse. It could have been peanut butter.