Pilot saves himself
US fighter jet crashes over Yellow Sea
December 11, 2023, 7:39 a.m
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An emergency suddenly occurs during a training flight of a US fighter jet off the Korean peninsula. The F-16 then crashes into the sea. The pilot can save himself using the ejection seat. How the crash came about is still unclear.
An F-16 fighter jet belonging to US forces in South Korea crashed during a training flight over the sea between the Korean peninsula and China. The US armed forces said the pilot was able to escape using the ejection seat. He was pulled from the Yellow Sea by the South Korean Navy and is in stable condition.
The plane took off from the US air base in Gunsan in the morning before an in-flight emergency occurred, it said. The cause of the accident is being investigated. The US has 28,500 soldiers stationed in South Korea.
Just a few weeks ago, an Osprey plane crashed near the Japanese island of Yakushima. Eight US pilots were killed. The US military then decided to keep the entire VTOL fleet on the ground for the time being in order to check possible safety risks.
It was not the first incident of this kind: In August, three US marines died when an Osprey military aircraft crashed in northern Australia; the cause of the accident is still unclear. Last year, four US Marines died when an Osprey crashed during a NATO exercise in Norway.