By Xinghui Kok
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore will resume flying its F-16 fleet after suspending training when one of the jets crashed earlier this month, the defence ministry on Saturday.
The defence ministry said the May 8 crash was due to the plane’s pitch rate gyroscopes giving erroneous inputs to the flight control computer.
“This led to the pilot being unable to control the plane at take-off,” the statement said. The pilot ejected successfully.
F-16 fighter jets are fitted with four such gyroscopes. A simultaneous failure is very rare occurrence and a first for Singapore’s fleet, the ministry said.
It added that all pitch rate gyroscopes will be checked and cleared before flights resume, and that the air force and F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin will look into the specific cause behind the malfunction.
The May crash was the first one for a Singapore fighter jet since 2004 when an F-16C went down during a night training mission in the U.S. state of Arizona, killing the 25-year-old pilot, according to local media CNA.
(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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