In an unfortunate incident in the southeastern city of Sacheon in South Korea, 2 airplanes collided resulting in the death of 4 pilots. Four pilots lost their lives in a collision between two South Korean air force jets on Friday, April 1, according to authorities. During a training exercise, the two planes collided mid-air. The incident occurred around 0437 GMT.
“Despite their attempts at an emergency escape all of the two student pilots and two flight instructors aboard the two planes died,” it said in a statement. A total of 130 troops, 95 police officers, and 60 firefighters as well as three helicopters have begun a search at the crash site, Yonhap news agency said.
28,500 American troops are in South Korea as a result of the war
President Moon Jae-in expressed his sympathies to the families of the victims. There were no civilian injuries, the air force said. However, they had organized a team to investigate the cause of the accident and the damage it had caused. The crash location is in a rural area. The photographs are showing smoke rising from a mountain, and one automobile crushed by aircraft parts while parked in front of a farmhouse.
Moreover, the collision is one of several that have occurred this year involving South Korean air force planes. An F-5 fighter jet crashed in January, killing one of the pilots. After a significant system failure on one plane prompted a spectacular emergency landing; the country grounded its whole fleet of modern F-35 fighter jets. Nonetheless, the armistice ending the fighting in 1953 is to be replaced by a peace treaty. The Korean peninsula remains technically at war. About 28,500 American troops are in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.