KUALA LUMPUR – Inaccurate input from aircraft components has been determined to have caused the crash of one of Singapore’s F-16 air force jets at the Tengah Air Base after experiencing issues on May 8.
The Singapore Defence Ministry, in a statement, said that its national air force and aerospace company Lockheed Martin had conducted detailed investigations into the incident, which caused the temporary suspension of its F-16 fleet.
“The flight data recorder recovered from the crashed F-16 showed that its pitch rate gyroscopes gave erroneous inputs to the flight control computer. This led to the pilot being unable to control the plane at take-off.
“All F-16 fighter jets are fitted with four such gyroscopes, and simultaneous failure of the gyroscopes is a very rare occurrence. As such, Lockheed Martin does not stipulate any maintenance for the pitch rate gyroscopes in the F-16 aircraft,” the statement read.
Noting that the incident was the first simultaneous malfunction of the component for the air force’s entire F-16 fleet, which has been in operation for over 35 years, the ministry said that further studies will be conducted to determine the specific cause of the malfunction.
It added that while the F-16 fleet will resume flying, each aircraft’s pitch rate gyroscope will be checked and cleared before the resumption of flights.
Previously, the ministry said that the pilot who was involved in the crash logged more than 2,000 flying hours on an F-16 but “encountered flight control issues upon lifting off the runway” at the airbase.
While the pilot did not suffer any serious injuries from the incident, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen expressed his disappointment over the accident, stressing that the air force aims to have “zero crashes”.
In May 2004, Singapore recorded a fatal crash of an F-16 during a night training session in Arizona, United States, which resulted in the death of the 25-year-old pilot.
The US-made F-16 is known for its manoeuvrability and combat radius. – May 18, 2024