Seoul, March 11 (IANS) Two South Korean Air Force unit commanders were dismissed on Tuesday over fighter jets’ accidental bombing of a village last week, the armed services said, citing charges of dereliction of duty and insufficient supervision.
On Thursday, two KF-16 fighter jets dropped eight 500-pound MK-82 bombs outside a training range in Pocheon, some 40 kilometres north of Seoul, during live-fire drills, injuring 31 people, including 19 civilians.
“The Air Force dismissed a colonel-level group commander and a lieutenant colonel-level squadron commander who were identified to have breached their duty to abide by regulations,” the armed forces said in a notice to reporters.
It cited a major dereliction of duty, and insufficient command management and supervision as reasons for the decision.
Separately, the Air Force said it plans to hold a meeting next week to deliberate on whether the two pilots who flew the fighter jets will be qualified to continue to operate aircraft.
Earlier on Monday, the South Korean Air Force reaffirmed pilot error as the main cause of an unprecedented mistaken bombing on a civilian town last week, as it released the interim probe results of the fighter jet accident.
The Air Force had earlier said pilot error was the suspected cause of the accidental bombing as one of the pilots had entered the wrong target coordinates prior to takeoff.
Releasing the interim findings, the South Korean Air Force said the target’s latitude coordinates were incorrectly entered after the pilot of the first jet read them aloud for the second pilot to input into the computer system during preparations.
It currently remains unclear if the coordinates were misread or misheard, but the South Korean Air Force said there were still at least three opportunities to catch the mistake and prevent the accidental bombing.
The South Korean Air Force, which had grounded nearly all aircraft after the accidental bombing, said it plans to resume flight training in phases on Monday, in conjunction with the beginning of a major springtime joint exercise between South Korea and the United States, Yonhap news agency reported.
Still, live-fire drills will only resume once preventive measures are established and relevant measures are completed, it added.
–IANS
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