Singapore to Resume Flying F-16 Jets After Crash This Month
SINGAPORE – Singapore will resume flying its F-16 fleet after suspending training when one of the jets crashed earlier this month, the defence ministry on Saturday.
From the Equity Insider archive. This article dates from May 19, 2024 and is preserved as first published.
SINGAPORE – Singapore will resume flying its F-16 fleet after suspending training when one of the jets crashed earlier this month, the defence ministry on Saturday.
The defence ministry said the May 8 crash was due to the plane’s pitch rate gyroscopes giving erroneous inputs to the flight control computer.
The defence ministry said the May 8 crash was due to the plane’s pitch rate gyroscopes giving erroneous inputs to the flight control computer.
“This led to the pilot being unable to control the plane at take-off,” the statement said. The pilot ejected successfully.
F-16 fighter jets are fitted with four such gyroscopes. A simultaneous failure is very rare occurrence and a first for Singapore’s fleet, the ministry said.
It added that all pitch rate gyroscopes will be checked and cleared before flights resume, and that the air force and F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin will look into the specific cause behind the malfunction.
The May crash was the first one for a Singapore fighter jet since 2004 when an F-16C went down during a night training mission in the U.S. state of Arizona, killing the 25-year-old pilot, according to local media CNA.
