By Jung Sung-ki
Staff reporter
Two crewmembers of an F-5F fighter jet were killed Friday as the aging jet crashed into waters off the country’s west coast during a routine training mission.
The Air Force immediately suspended operations of its fleet of F-5.
It was the second accident involving the F-5 in three months. In March, two F-5 aircraft plunged into a mountain in the eastern part of Gangwon Province. Three pilots were killed in the crash.
The F-5E aircraft took off from an airbase in Gangneung at around 9:43 a.m. for an air-to-ground strike mission and was returning to base, according to an Air Force spokesman.
The jet disappeared from radar screens at around 10:33 a.m., he said.
Search-and-rescue helicopters later found the bodies of the two pilots. The helicopters continued searching for debris, said the spokesman.
The South Korean Air Force introduced the F-5 about 30 years ago.
There are plans to replace the aging fleet of F-5 and F-4 fighter jets with up-to-date F-15K fighters.
Earlier this week, the Air Force decommissioned a fleet of 60 F-4D aircraft.