The cause of the F-16 fighter crash in January 2024 was the failure of the hardware that led to the engine stop.
The fall of the American F-16 fighter into the sea by the west coast of South Korea from January last year was caused by hardware failure, which led to the engine stop. This stems from the US Air Force report to which Jonhap was recalled on Tuesday, TASR writes.
The F-16C fighter assigned to the US Army at the Kunsan Air Base, approximately 175 kilometers south of Seoul, collapsed into the Yellow Sea on January 31, 2024 when performing a regular training flight, about 41 minutes after the start. The pilot was safely ejected before the fall, but the debris of the fighter could not be found.
Cause of the accident
Available evidence has shown that the cause of the accident was the engine failure due to a hardware failure, the US Air Force report from last week. Investigators came to these conclusions based on testimonies of witnesses and sound recordings. To lose engine power, the fighter lost the ability to maintain height and speed and the pilot could no longer reach the nearest airport.
According to Jonhap, South Korea, in 2023 and 2024, there were three consecutive accounts of US F-16 fighters. The first of them collapsed in May 2023 in the field, while the next crashed in the Yellow Sea in December of the same year. All pilots ejected. The investigation was attributed to the May crash of partial loss of engine power and the December accident of GPS navigation system.
