According to officials, a bird attack was the likely cause following the crash with a South Korean Air Force F-35A jet on January 4.
The South Korean Air Force has concluded that swallowing a small bird into the engine of a Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II jet caused the plane to crash. emergency “belly landing” at an air base.
However, the bird strike did not explain the previously noticed failure of the avionics and landing gear.
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“The plane made an emergency landing because the landing gear did not extend. This means the plane ‘landed on its stomach’, said a South Korean military official, who did not confirm whether the plane suffered any damage in the incident.
The South Korean Air Force and US military plan to conduct a joint investigation into what happened to a fighter jet manufactured by US defense company Lockheed Martin.
Officials said the Air Force would suspend all flights of the F-35A fighter jet pending an investigation.
To date, it has received more than 30 F-35A jets from the United States under a plan to deploy 40 in total.
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