A US F-16 fighter jet has crashed in the waters of the Yellow Sea off the coast of South Korea.
It raised safety concerns after an Osprey aircraft crashed near a Japanese island in November, killing eight American pilots.
On December 11, the F-16 plane crashed into the sea after taking off around 9 a.m. from Gunsan, 180 kilometres south of Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources. The pilot ejected and was conscious after being rescued from the sea.
US officials in South Korea and South Korea’s defence ministry spokesperson could not immediately confirm the report.
The Osprey crash off the southwestern island of Yakushima eventually forced the US military to ground its entire fleet of several hundred aircraft. The military says the move was to check a possible equipment problem that could have triggered the crash.
Before the scrapping decision was made, the Japanese government called on the US military in the country to suspend use of the Osprey, which are manufactured by Textron’s Boeing and Bell Helicopter divisions, so that a review could be carried out.
The accident in Japan has brought renewed attention to the Osprey, a rotorcraft that can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an aeroplane. The failures and accidents of the early years – especially in 2000, when 23 Marines died in two crashes – prompted a major Pentagon review and subsequent design changes for the aircraft, which has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
South Korea and the US have intensified training exercises in the region in the wake of North Korea’s increasing ballistic missile tests, including the banned new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The earliest version of the jet, the F-16A, was introduced in 1979. There have since been several other models. As of September 2021, the US Air Force had a total inventory of 1,017 F-16C/D fighter jets, according to its website. It is not yet clear what model was being flown by the pilot involved in the crash.
