Poor Maintenance Caused Fighter Crash

Failed engine maintenance was the cause of a fighter jets crash into waters off the country's west coast last month, the Air Force said Monday.

The Air Force said a cover plate of the KF-16¡¯s engine turbine blade fell apart during the training flight.

"After examining the engine of the fighter jet, we concluded the cause of the accident was a maintenance problem," Col. Kim Kyu-jin of the Air Force¡¯s public affairs officer said during a briefing. He said the investigative team consisted of 13 people from the Air Force and four from Pratt & Whitney, the producer of the engine.

Cover plates of the engine made by Pratt & Whitney were the subject of a replacement order in 2004 according to the U.S. Air Force¡¯s Time Compliance Technical Order (TCTO), but engineers failed to change the plates of the crashed plane, Kim said.

Fragments from a broken cover plate damaged and stopped the engine during the flight, he added, saying mechanics and their superiors concerned will be strictly punished regardless of their rank.

According to the TCTO, cover plates of 26 other KF-16s were replaced, Air Force officials said.

On Feb. 13, a KF-16 fighter jet crashed over the West Sea during an air-to-ground attack exercise. The pilot ejected just before the crash and was rescued by a fisherman.

It was the fourth accident involving the KF-16, the main fighter jet of the South Korean Air Force. South Korea acquired more than 130 of the U.S.-made planes since it first purchased them in the early 1990s.

A KF-16 costs $43 million to produce and more than $720,000 annually to maintain, officials said.

Source : THE KOREA TIMES

(http://search.hankooki.com)

By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Posted: March 05, 2007

Photo : F-16C Block 32
[www.blue-sky.pe.kr]


(27.03.2007)