An investigation into the crash of a Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) KF-16 fighter on Nov. 20 revealed that the cause of the accident was a missing nut on the fuel pump drive shaft, which was responsible for fixing the drive shaft in place.
The missing nut caused the drive shaft to vibrate and the gearwheel to wear abnormally, cutting fuel to the engine. Despite the pilot’s attempts to restart the aircraft in mid-air, the engine stopped due to a lack of fuel and the fighter crashed.
According to the Air Force, the nut had not been attached to the drive shaft during its maintenance in 2010, 12 years prior to the accident. The engine gearbox is supposed to be inspected after 4,000 hours of operation, but the gearbox in the accident aircraft had only been operated for around 900 hours after maintenance in 2010 and had not undergone any further maintenance since then. As a result, the military was unaware of this issue for over a decade.
After analyzing the components of the gearbox debris collected from the crash site, the Air Force was able to determine that the missing nut was the cause of the accident. In order to ensure that no similar issues existed in other aircraft, the Air Force inspected more than 200 engines, including those used in the KF-16 and F-15K. Of these engines, 40 were found to have no problems, leading the Air Force to announce that flights would resume on the 2nd of next month.
As the cause of the accident was identified as “defective maintenance,” the Air Force is considering disciplining and punishing the personnel who were responsible for the maintenance of the engine 12 years ago.
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