A U.S. F-16 pilot ejected after losing power in thick clouds in South Korea
Investigators of the 2023 crash in South Korea found the plane's key instruments stopped working in thick clouds, putting the jet in a dive.
BY MATT WHITE | PUBLISHED JUN 7, 2024 5:29 PM EDT
NEWS
f16 crash report osan korea
An F-16 pilot ejected just seconds before his jet crashed in a fiery ball just outside Osan Air Base, South Korea after thick clouds and failed instruments left the plane in an unrecoverable dive. The Air Force released an Accident Investigation Board report this week of the May 6, 2023 mishap which destroyed the $30 million jet. The plane’s instruments were so off, investigators wrote, that flying the jet felt like “when you push on the gas in a car and expect the speed to go up, but the speed goes down.”
Investigators found that an electrical failure of the plane’s key flight instruments struck just as the plane entered thick clouds soon after take-off, leaving the pilot with no way to know which way was up or down until it was too late. He also could not communicate on his radio.
“A power loss caused a cascading failure of the [F-16’s] primary flight and navigation instruments,” with the plane’s horizon indicator showing “unreliable and inaccurate data,” a Pacific Air Forces investigation board found.
Just as the instruments failed, the board concluded that the plane entered a thick layer of clouds through which the pilot only got a single glance at the ground. For rest of the two minute flight, the report said, the pilot fought to overcome spatial disorientation within the clouds.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/f-16-osan-crash-investigation/
