Investigation Finds ROK Air Force Pilots Missed Three Opportunities to Prevent Bombing Strike on Korean Village

A lot of incompetence on display here by these ROK pilots that mistakenly bombed a village near Pocheon:

According to the report, pilots preparing for the mission entered the coordinates for the planned strike a day before the incident. The lead pilot of the KF-16 squadron read out the route coordinates, including the target location, while the second pilot, who would be flying the second aircraft, entered the figures into the joint mission planning system (JMPS).

However, the target coordinates were entered incorrectly. It remains unclear at this stage whether the first pilot misread them or if the second pilot entered them incorrectly, according to Air Force officials. 

Either way, by procedure, the pilots should have rechecked the coordinates, but they failed to do so, marking the first missed opportunity to correct the error.

On the day of the drill, before takeoff, the pilots transferred the operation data from the JMPS onto a storage device for the jets. Due to an equipment malfunction, the pilot of the second aircraft had to manually enter the target coordinates in the cockpit.

This led to a discrepancy: the lead aircraft carried the incorrect coordinates from the previous day, while the second jet had the correct ones. During the final pre-flight inspection, both pilots reviewed the target coordinates again, but the lead pilot failed to notice the error. This was the second missed opportunity.

The most critical mistake occurred during the actual flight. 

Although the lead pilot noticed slight differences between the flight path and the target area’s terrain compared to previous training exercises, he proceeded with dropping the bombs.

In a rush to meet the designated time on target, the pilot failed to visually confirm the target but still reported “target in sight” and dropped the bombs. The second pilot, focused on maintaining formation with the lead aircraft, failed to recognize the first pilot’s mistake and proceeded with dropping bombs at the wrong coordinates, even though he had the right figures.

Korea Times

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