Posted on 04/03/2009 9:49:50 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
A KF-16 fighter jet crashed into the West Sea during a training mission on Tuesday. It was the sixth crash of a KF-16 since they were introduced in 1994. The Air Force says the crash rate among its fleet of around 130 KF-16s is low compared to other countries that operate the same aircraft, but since we shall have to use it as our main fighter jet until 2020, it is a source of serious concern. Each KF-16 fighter costs around W40 billion (US$1=W1,381) and the losses from the crashes so far total W240 billion. Fortunately, the two pilots were able to eject to safety just before their plane crashed, but the loss of life involving such crashes is also a major problem. It costs around W9 billion to train a pilot for 10 years, and it is impossible to put a monetary value on a life.
Following a crash, all aircraft of the same type are grounded until the cause of the accident is established. That produces a huge gap in the combat readiness of our Air Force. After a KF-16 jet crashed into the West Sea in February 2007 due to poor engine maintenance, only 50 percent of those jets in the Air Force were put into operation over the next six months. Another cause for concern is the stress and the decline in morale and combat strength among pilots who fly those jets.
The military needs to find out whether the crash was due to structural problems in the engine or fuselage or due to faulty maintenance or pilot error, and come up with measures to deal with the problems. With the exception of another 2007 crash, which was attributed to pilot error, the four other crashes were determined to have been caused by defects in the engine or fuselage. Following the crash in February of 2007, an investigation revealed that during 2000 to 2005, W247.6 billion of the military budget allocated for KF-16 maintenance had been used for other purposes and had resulted in problems in keeping those jets in peak operating condition.
If the cause of the latest crash is discovered to be due to defects in the engine or fuselage, our military should hold Pratt & Whitney or Lockheed Martin responsible and demand adequate compensation and swift action to prevent more accidents. This will put our military’s negotiating and mediating skills to the test.
F-16 ping.
That still seems reasonable out of a total of 130 aircraft. Sounds more like maintenance problems than a defect by P&W.
I would normally agree. However, P&W motors were the cause of at least four mishaps from Luke AFB alone in 1999.
I am not blaming them. The investigation is ongoing.
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The military needs to find out whether the crash was due to structural problems in the engine or fuselage or due to faulty maintenance
Stupid reporters - not just an American thing.
Ouch! Did not know that.
I’ll have to see if I can dig up an old Powerpoint contrasting the F135 and F136 and find a place to stash them online [humor].
WOW
6 aircraft in 15 years. The better metric is how many Class A mishaps per 1000 flying hours.
But then the ‘reporter’ would have to use some math - and have access to the KAF records.
I would vote for ‘bad maintenance’ given what I observed (many years ago) while stationed on a KAF base.
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