Fire omkom i mid-air i Sør Korea - Avaition24.be

 

Four dead in the mid-air collision of two Korean Air Force trainer jets

By

 André Orban

 -

2 April 2022

 

© Doo Ho Kim – commons file, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67962065

Two Air Force KT-1 trainer jets collided mid-air and crashed in southern South Korea on Friday, killing all four pilots aboard the planes, the Air Force and local disaster response officials said.

The jets went down in a rice paddy in Sacheon, about 300 kilometres south of Seoul, after colliding with each other in midair at around 13:37 during training, just minutes after their takeoffs from a nearby base.

The Air Force said each jet carried a first lieutenant trainee pilot and a civilian flight instructor. All four ejected from the planes but were later found dead.

Over 62 firefighters and emergency responders were dispatched to the crash site. A fire broke out on the rooftop of a church after debris from the jet fell but was soon put out.

The KAI KT-1 Woongbi is a South Korean single-engined turboprop, basic training aircraft. It was jointly developed by Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) and the Agency for Defence Development (ADD). The KT-1 is the first completely indigenous Korean aircraft ever developed.