Causes of F-5 Crashes

Dear editor,

Despite its age, the F-5 is still a good aircraft. With regular inspection, maintenance and upgrades there is no reason why it cannot remain in the Korean arsenal until 2025. That date is not arbitrary.

The USAF plans to use the F-5's sister aircraft, the T-38C, until around 2025. To call the F-5 useless and dangerous shows that the writer of the editorial ``Repeated F-5 Crashes'' simply does not understand aircraft but is simply venting. The only truthful adjective he used was ``old."

The U.S. Marine Corps and Navy still use the F-5 in ``aggressor" squadrons and the F-5 serves them very well.

I do not see how, if the T-38/F-5 family of aircraft is currently able to serve ― and will continue to serve ― the U.S. military for another 15 years, it could be inadequate to serve the Korean Air Force in the same time frame unless the F-5 are inadequately maintained or neglected by its staff.

Matthew Smith Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province mattvsmith@yahoo.com