A mid-air collision between two South Korean military fighter jets five years ago was caused by pilots using their mobile phones to take photographs and video during a flight mission, an official audit has found.
The incident, which took place over the city of Daegu, involved two F-15K jets on a routine flight mission. Both pilots survived without injury, but the damage sustained by the aircraft cost the military the equivalent of £440,500 in repairs.
Seoul’s Audit and Inspection Board published its findings on the crash this week, revealing that the sequence of events began when the wingman pilot decided to commemorate his final flight with his military unit by taking photographs on his mobile phone. Notably, the pilot had declared his intention to do so during a pre-flight briefing, and the audit board found that photographing milestone flights was “a widespread practice among pilots at the time.”
As the aircraft made their way back to base following the mission, the wingman pilot began taking pictures. The pilot of the lead aircraft then asked another airman on board to film footage of the wingman jet. In an attempt to position his aircraft more favourably for the camera, the wingman pilot pulled his jet upward and flipped it — a sudden manoeuvre that brought the two planes dangerously close together. The lead aircraft was forced into a rapid descent to avoid a direct collision, but the two jets nonetheless made contact, damaging the lead plane’s left wing and the wingman aircraft’s tail stabiliser.
The South Korean Air Force subsequently suspended the wingman pilot and sought to recover approximately 880 million won — around £400,000 — from him to cover repair costs. The pilot appealed against the fine, triggering the audit board’s investigation. While he acknowledged that his sudden movement had caused the collision, he argued that the lead aircraft’s pilot had effectively consented to the manoeuvre by requesting footage be taken.
The audit board ruled that the wingman pilot should pay only a fraction of the original fine, finding that the air force itself bore a degree of responsibility for failing to regulate the use of cameras and mobile phones during flights. The board also took into account the pilot’s otherwise strong service record. He has since left the military and is working for a commercial airline.
It remains unclear whether any formal action was taken against the other personnel involved in the incident.
