F-16 fighter jet accident caused by navigation failure, weather
The Peninsula
Seoul: The US Air Force said Friday that an F 16 fighter jet accident in South Korea last December was caused by a failure in navigation systems and a...
Seoul: The US Air Force said Friday that an F-16 fighter jet accident in South Korea last December was caused by a failure in navigation systems and a loss of primary flight control, compounded by adverse weather.
F-16s have been deployed in South Korea since 1981, with three squadrons of at least 20 jets each currently operating from Pyeongtaek and Gunsan.
The December crash was one of three accidents in South Korea involving the jets in an eight-month span ending in January.
According to an Air Force statement, investigators found that "while flying through dense cloud coverage, the aircraft's primary flight and navigation instruments failed, resulting in horizon, or attitude, information being limited to the standby attitude indicator, which had been experiencing pitch and bank errors".
Due to the faulty horizon indicator, the pilot became disoriented, with conflicting data from other instruments and the wingman leading to further confusion.
