Seoul: The crash of a U.S. F-16 fighter jet in waters off South Korea's western coast in January last year was caused by a hardware failure that led to an engine stall, a report showed Tuesday. On Jan. 31, a F-16C assigned to the U.S. 7th Air Force's 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base in Gunsan, about 175 kilometers south of Seoul, crashed into the Yellow Sea. The crash occurred 41 minutes after the fighter jet took off for a routine training sortie conducted as part of a readiness exercise. The pilot safely ejected and was rescued, although the aircraft was not recovered.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the U.S. Air Force said in a report published last week that "the Accident Investigation Board President found by a preponderance of evidence the cause of the mishap was an engine stall due to hardware failure." The conclusion was reached based on witness statements and audio recordings, given that the aircraft was not retrieved. The report highlighted a loss of engine power as a key factor in the pilot's inability to maintain attitude and airspeed.

The report further noted that the pilot could not make a successful landing due to the distance to the nearest airport. This incident was the latest in a series of three U.S. F-16 crashes in South Korea from 2023-24. The first crash occurred in May 2023, when a U.S. F-16 crashed into farmland, followed by another crash into the Yellow Sea during routine training in December of the same year. All pilots involved in these incidents ejected safely and were rescued.

The investigation board attributed the May 2023 crash to a partial aircraft power loss and cited an embedded GPS inertial navigation system failure as the cause of the December crash.