All 20 Lynx choppers suspended following crash

By Jun Ji-hye

The Navy temporarily suspended the operation of all 20 of its Lynx anti-submarine helicopters, Tuesday, after one crashed into the sea off the nation’s east coast during a joint naval exercise with the United States a day earlier.

The Navy found the bodies of the three Navy personnel on board on Tuesday and Wednesday. It also retrieved parts of the helicopter and a crewmember's helmet.

The Navy said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Um Hyun-seong formed a panel to find out the cause of the crash.

On Monday, the Lynx helicopter sent out a distress signal and disappeared from radar eight minutes after it took off from an Aegis destroyer at 8:57 p.m. during the drill.

The crash site is estimated to be in the waters 52 kilometers east of Yangyang, Gangwon Province, which are 1,300 meters deep. The site is also 48 kilometers south of the inter-Korean maritime border, the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a Navy official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

He added that weather conditions such as wave height, wind speed and direction all met the requirements for the drill.

The helicopter involved in the accident was introduced in 1999, the official said, noting that it was not a particularly old or outdated chopper as the model is capable of being operated for more than 30 years. He also said the chopper underwent maintenance at the end of August, adding that the pilot held ample qualifications with 770 hours of flying time.

“Further investigation is necessary to find out what caused the accident,” he said.

The Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters, the predecessor of AgustaWestland. Since it first went into operation in 1977, the chopper has served in battlefield utility, anti-armor, search and rescue and anti-submarine warfare roles.

The helicopter that crashed was participating in simulated precision strikes of key ground targets in North Korea during the drill.

Since the South Korean Navy first introduced 12 Lynx choppers in 1991, the model was involved in two accidents: one in 1993 and another in April 2010, during which 10 and four Navy personnel died, respectively. The official said it was believed that the two accidents took place due to the pilots suffering from spatial disorientation that caused them to misinterpret altitude, air speed and direction of the aircraft.

A Lynx also made an emergency landing in April in 2010 after an instrument failure, according to the official.

In July 2010, prosecutors confirmed that a company in Busan had conducted shoddy maintenance work for years and made unfair profits of 1.4 billion won ($1.3 million).

In the 2000s, a modernized variant of the Lynx was designed as a multirole combat helicopter, designated as the AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat, which is intended to replace existing Lynx helicopters.

In 2013, the Navy signed a contract to buy eight Wildcats for about 400 billion won, and in July, it received an initial delivery of four helicopters.