http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?icid=4&id=28540
Seems the recent crash of the ROKAF T-50B was due to a maintenance error. The mechanic didn’t do a proper preflight and forgot to remove some safety involving the attitude control system. Still, I wonder why the pilot didn’t eject…

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/09/28/2011092800692.html ROKAF pilot shortage.

One of my ROKAF friends only has something like 10 of the original 80 fighter pilots left in his year group. Their junior officers call them colonel already because all ten will get promoted because their are more slots than people. The ROKAF has been asking for a pilot bonus for the last 15 years or so. Of course, it’s the ROKAF’s poor standard of living (constant moves, substandard on-base housing, mandatory drinking, too much alert duty, etc.) that causes them to get out…

PBAR

PS the RF-4Cs are to be replaced shortly by RF-16s (podded system).

On the 21st a ROKAF major general accidentally ejected himself from a ROKAF F-15K prior to takeoff while on the runway.

http://news.kbs.co.kr/politics/2010/07/26/2134073.html (it’s all in Korean)

Apparently they crashed into a mountain… 🙁

Two Korean Air Force fighters missing

Two Korean Air Force F-5 fighters went missing at around 12:25 p.m. today some 20 kilometers west of Gangneung air base in Gangwon, a defense official said.

The official said that two aircraft took off from the base five minutes earlier to conduct air maneuvers. One and two pilots were on board in each F-5E and F-5F fighter.

Whether the pilots are dead or not is not yet known.

The Air Force urgently dispatched two HH-60 search and rescue helicopters to search for the missing pilots and aircraft.

Here’s a comprehensive list of pilot defections from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cold_War_pilot_defections

I would say that almost 90% of defections were flown in MiGs, the MiG-31 being the only MiG type that has never seen a defection. Other interesting defector aircraft are the Cuban Cessna 402 and the Iranian F-14.

Hmm, that list doesn’t have two Taiwanese F-5 defections. I heard in one case it was an F-5F and the guy in the backseat didn’t want to defect. After wrestling with the controls they flew out over the sea again and the rear seat guy ejected and then the defector when on to crash land in China.

While we are on the subject of OV-10s, I was once was on a court martial juror with a F-16 pilot who had previously flown OV-10s. He told me that they used to fly from Clark AB, Philiphines to Hickam AFB, Hawaii in their OV-10s. He said if they reached a certain point in the flight and the head winds were too strong, they would have to turn around and try again the next day. I can’t imagine how long it must take to fly from the PI to Hawaii….

The JASDF received at least some AMRAAMs for testing purposes but then decided to go with their own BVR missile. At least this is what a friend of mine who is a JASDF F-15J pilot told me.