The Air Force has announced strengthened procedures to prevent misfire incidents involving fighter jets by implementing a redundant verification process for target coordinates. This announcement was made in relation to the misfire incident involving KF-16 fighter jets in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province.
The investigation revealed that the incident was a “man-made disaster” resulting from the failure to properly execute a three-step verification process for target coordinates. The error began with incorrect latitude coordinates inputted the day before the incident during the target coordinate briefing. The process lacked thorough cross-checking at multiple levels.
On the day of the incident, one fighter jet misrecorded the target coordinates, while the other corrected them manually due to equipment errors. Despite this discrepancy, the pilots did not verify the coordinates visually or through the available redundant process.
The Air Force plans to reinforce management responsibilities by incorporating face-to-face reporting of flight plans and missions to commanding officers, including direct briefing participation by squadron leaders to assess mission readiness.
During the briefing, the delay in awareness and reporting of the misfire situation was also criticized. The Air Force Operations Command acknowledged the abnormal situation quickly but focused on verifying whether the dropped ordnance was indeed from the fighter’s misfire, delaying the official report of the misfire incident.
The Air Force intends to hold accountable those identified to have made errors in judgment and reporting, in accordance with legal and regulatory protocols. Efforts to strengthen real-time reporting systems will also be implemented.
Additionally, the Air Force announced the phased resumption of flight training exercises related to Operation Freedom Shield (FS) starting today, with live-fire training to be resumed following the establishment and completion of preventive measures.