diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/termvectors/TermVectorsWriter.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/termvectors/TermVectorsWriter.java
index 21b990ed2fd..53cdd35bc09 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/termvectors/TermVectorsWriter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/termvectors/TermVectorsWriter.java
@@ -104,9 +104,14 @@ final class TermVectorsWriter {
                 if (flags.contains(Flag.TermStatistics)) {
                     // get the doc frequency
                     if (dfs != null) {
-                        writeTermStatistics(dfs.termStatistics().get(term));
+                        final TermStatistics statistics = dfs.termStatistics().get(term);
+                        writeTermStatistics(statistics == null ? new TermStatistics(termBytesRef, 0, 0) : statistics);
                     } else {
-                        writeTermStatistics(topLevelIterator);
+                        if (foundTerm) {
+                            writeTermStatistics(topLevelIterator);
+                        } else {
+                            writeTermStatistics(new TermStatistics(termBytesRef, 0, 0));
+                        }
                     }
                 }
                 if (useDocsAndPos) {
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/termvectors/GetTermVectorsTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/termvectors/GetTermVectorsTests.java
index 752a52d94ae..d99d03ec0b4 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/termvectors/GetTermVectorsTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/action/termvectors/GetTermVectorsTests.java
@@ -875,7 +875,7 @@ public class GetTermVectorsTests extends AbstractTermVectorsTests {
         checkBrownFoxTermVector(resp.getFields(), "field1", false);
     }
 
-    @Test @AwaitsFix(bugUrl = "https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/10660")
+    @Test
     public void testArtificialNonExistingField() throws Exception {
         // setup indices
         ImmutableSettings.Builder settings = settingsBuilder()