Category: ROK Military

A tragic accident appears to have happened to cause this ROK Navy P9 aircraft to crash:

All four Navy officers aboard a maritime patrol aircraft were killed after the plane crashed on a mountain in the southeastern city of Pohang on Thursday, the Navy said. 

The crash occurred at around 1:49 p.m., and witnesses reported smoke rising from the mountain with sounds of explosions. 

“A P-3 maritime patrol aircraft that took off at 1:43 p.m. for landing and takeoff training from an air base in Pohang crashed at a nearby location at around 1:49 p.m., due to an unspecified reason,” the Navy said.

Four people were on board — two commissioned officers and two non-commissioned officers.

The Navy said it recovered the dead bodies of all four officers. The officers’ identities have yet to be confirmed.

The aircraft was usually based at a Navy unit on the southern island of Jeju, but had flown to Pohang for training, a Navy official said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I would hope that ROK counterintelligence agents would be keeping close tabs on any ROK Soldier with ties to China to prevent spying like this:

A South Korean soldier raised in China has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified military information about joint U.S.-South Korean exercises to Chinese intelligence agents, prosecutors said this month. The 22-year-old army supply specialist, whose name has not been released, was arrested April 18 and charged with leaking military secrets and accepting bribes from foreign agents, according to a redacted indictment filed May 15 by the Military Prosecutors’ Office in Gangwon District.

Prosecutors allege the soldier transmitted information — including details related to Ulchi Freedom Shield, a large-scale joint military exercise with the United States — to China’s Intelligence Bureau of the Joint Staff Department. The leaked documents reportedly contained sensitive details such as base names, troop schedules and logistical capabilities, along with participating troops’ personal information. The soldier allegedly received about $12,215 via the Chinese digital payment platform Alipay, according to the 15-page indictment.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but this guy had major red flags, he was raised in China by his grandfather who is a retired Soldier and went to college in China as well. While serving in the ROK military he made repeated trips back to China.

With the current political uncertainty in South Korea, the ROK military probably does not want to something as significant as direct military cooperation with Japan, even if it is in the Philippines:

The South Korean Marine Corps on Tuesday denied Japanese media reports that claimed the two countries will hold a joint military drill in the Philippines next month.

Earlier in the day, Kyodo News Agency and NHK reported the Korean Marine Corps will hold its first-ever joint exercise with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) during KAMANDAG, an annual international military exercise in the Philippines, slated for next month. 

The Marine Corps, however, rejected the reports, saying it has no such plan.

“We will conduct combined drills with the United States and the Philippines, but have no plan to do so with the JGSDF,” an official from the Marine Corps told Yonhap News Agency over the phone.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It sounds like a human interface issue has been discovered in this aircraft. You would think it would not be this easy to accidentally jettison parts of the aircraft like this:

A South Korean Air Force pilot mistakenly pressed the emergency jettison button while attempting to adjust the heating in a KA-1 light attack aircraft that accidentally dropped its weapons and fuel tanks last week, authorities said Monday.

The Air Force said the pilot was attempting to adjust an air vent that was disrupting his vision when the incident occurred at 8:22 p.m. on Friday over Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, during a nighttime mock firing exercise.

The vent and emergency jettison button, which measure 3.5 centimeters and 3.3 centimeters in diameter, respectively, are located close to each other, contributing to the confusion, authorities said.

“The pilot, who was wearing night vision goggles, reported that strong wind was blowing into his helmet through the ventilation system. While trying to adjust the heater controls near the air vent, he mistakenly pressed the emergency jettison button,” Lt. Col. Jang Dong-ha, spokesperson for the Air Force, said during a press briefing in Seoul.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but fortunately no one on the ground was injured from the jettisoned equipment.

It is hard for me to say that a lack of training caused the recent accident mishaps by the ROK Air Force like this defense analyst claims. Sometime accidents just happen and fortunately no one was killed unlike the U.S. Blackhawk helicopter that flew into a commercial airliner in Washington, D.C. After that crash no one claimed the U.S. military lacked training:

South Korea’s military has come under fire for lax discipline following a series of major accidents in recent months, including the latest involving the Air Force’s accidental dropping of two gun pods from a KA-1 light attack aircraft during training on Friday.

The series of incidents came amid a leadership vacuum in the military that began in December, prompting security concerns due to signs of a weakened defense posture. Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and several other key unit commanders were arrested and have been detained for their alleged roles in ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3. Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho is currently serving as the acting defense minister.

“On the surface, (the series of accidents) may seem to be merely a lack of discipline within the military, but it’s more an accumulation of inadequate military training,” said Yang Uk, a research fellow in military strategy and weapons systems at the Asan Institute of Policy Studies, speaking via phone on Sunday.

“It’s the result of inconsistency in military training, with the liberal Moon Jae-in administration having halted and scaled back several key drills and then the Yoon administration failing to revive the momentum of the exercises,” he said.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

A lot of military careers are being ended due to the pilots who committed the error of mistakenly bombing a Korean village back in March:

Two Air Force unit commanders have been booked in relation to an unprecedented mistaken bombing on a civilian town last month, officials said Monday, as the ministry released the interim probe results of the fighter jet accident.

On March 6, two KF-16 fighter jets dropped eight MK-82 bombs outside a training range in Pocheon, some 40 kilometers north of Seoul, during live-fire drills, injuring 52 people, including 38 civilians, according to an estimate by city authorities.

The two pilots, who are alleged to have erroneously entered the target coordinates prior to the live-fire drills, have been booked over charges of professional negligence resulting in injury and damaging military facilities. The pilots have also been suspended from air duty for one year.

“The ministry plans to refer the two pilots and the unit commanders who have been booked to the military prosecution after the probe concludes and seek disciplinary action against nine officials who were found to have belatedly reported the case and taken insufficient measures,” the ministry’s criminal investigation command said in a release.

The nine officials include seven from the Air Force and two from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it added.

The ministry also plans to issue a warning against the Air Force’s operations commander, holding him accountable for command responsibility and insufficient reporting.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is interesting that personnel all the way up in the Joint Chiefs of Staff is facing charges. How could they have prevented this pilot error from happening?

Another major accident from the ROK military that fortunately did not have anyone killed or injured:

An Army surveillance drone collided with a helicopter parked at an airfield just north of Seoul on Monday, but no casualties were reported, the Army said.

The collision took place as the Israeli-made Heron drone was attempting to land at the Army base in Yangju at about 1 p.m., sparking a fire that was extinguished in about 20 minutes, according to the Army.

No one was injured, but the drone and the helicopter, a Surion built by Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd., were completely destroyed by the fire, an Army official said.

The military has launched an investigation into the exact cause of the accident.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Could you imagine the SOFA issues if American pilots did something like this?:

South Korea’s military has charged two air force pilots with criminal negligence following an accidental bombing that injured 38 people outside a live-fire range.

The two unidentified KF-16 pilots were accused of mistakenly inputting incorrect bombing coordinates during a training flight on March 6, the Criminal Investigation Command of the Ministry of National Defense said in a news release Thursday.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

A lot of incompetence on display here by these ROK pilots that mistakenly bombed a village near Pocheon:

According to the report, pilots preparing for the mission entered the coordinates for the planned strike a day before the incident. The lead pilot of the KF-16 squadron read out the route coordinates, including the target location, while the second pilot, who would be flying the second aircraft, entered the figures into the joint mission planning system (JMPS).

However, the target coordinates were entered incorrectly. It remains unclear at this stage whether the first pilot misread them or if the second pilot entered them incorrectly, according to Air Force officials. 

Either way, by procedure, the pilots should have rechecked the coordinates, but they failed to do so, marking the first missed opportunity to correct the error.

On the day of the drill, before takeoff, the pilots transferred the operation data from the JMPS onto a storage device for the jets. Due to an equipment malfunction, the pilot of the second aircraft had to manually enter the target coordinates in the cockpit.

This led to a discrepancy: the lead aircraft carried the incorrect coordinates from the previous day, while the second jet had the correct ones. During the final pre-flight inspection, both pilots reviewed the target coordinates again, but the lead pilot failed to notice the error. This was the second missed opportunity.

The most critical mistake occurred during the actual flight. 

Although the lead pilot noticed slight differences between the flight path and the target area’s terrain compared to previous training exercises, he proceeded with dropping the bombs.

In a rush to meet the designated time on target, the pilot failed to visually confirm the target but still reported “target in sight” and dropped the bombs. The second pilot, focused on maintaining formation with the lead aircraft, failed to recognize the first pilot’s mistake and proceeded with dropping bombs at the wrong coordinates, even though he had the right figures.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The ROK Air Force is very luck no one was killed in this accidental bombing strike because this could have been far more tragic:

The number of houses damaged in last week’s accidental bombing of a northern village has grown from 58 to 142 following a second survey, the local government said Sunday.

The village in Pocheon, some 40 kilometers north of Seoul, suffered large-scale damage after two KF-16 fighter jets “abnormally” dropped eight MK-82 bombs outside a training range during live-fire drills on Thursday.

Initially, 58 houses were reported damaged, but the number grew to 99 as of Saturday morning, and following a second survey, grew further to 142, according to the Pocheon municipal government.

Twenty-two households have evacuated their homes, while another nine households have returned following partial restoration work.

The number of injured civilians has also increased by two to 19.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Stars & Stripes is reporting that the wrong coordinates were entered causing the accidental bombing:

Initial investigations found the pilot of one of the KF-16s entered wrong coordinates for a bombing site. Officials said the pilots of two KF-16s had more than 200-400 hours of flying time. Lee said they likely piloted KF-16s only two to three years.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but these pilots did not have a lot of flight hours which I would not be surprised contributed to this accident.