Army Forms Central Accident Investigation Committee
An Army unmanned reconnaissance aircraft returning from a reconnaissance mission collided with a helicopter that was tethered on the ground during landing. This incident occurred 11 days after a friendly fire accident involving an Air Force fighter jet.
According to the military on the 18th, the Army has formed a Central Accident Investigation Committee consisting of about 20 members, including the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence of the Information Operations Headquarters, and has begun investigating the cause of the collision accident between the medium-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft Heron and the helicopter KUH-1 Surion.
The previous day, around 1 p.m., at a military airfield in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, a Heron aircraft returning from a reconnaissance mission suddenly changed direction and collided with a Surion helicopter tethered on the ground. Both aircraft were completely destroyed in the accident. The fire was extinguished within about 20 minutes, and no casualties were reported.
The Heron is a medium-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft produced by the Israeli defense company IAI. The Army introduced three Heron units in 2016 and has operated them as surveillance assets against North Korea. Among them, one was lost last November due to a GPS jamming attack by North Korea, and another is reportedly under repair overseas. A military official stated, “Since there are replacement forces and other reconnaissance assets, there should be no significant problem in surveillance against North Korea.”
Possible causes of this accident include pilot error, data link defects, and other aircraft-related issues. It has been confirmed that North Korea’s GPS jamming attack did not occur at the time of the accident. A military official said, “The exact cause of the accident is under investigation.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defense decided to gradually resume live-fire training, which had been suspended after the Air Force friendly fire accident on the 6th. However, the resumption of Air Force aircraft firing and live-fire training in the Pocheon area will be decided later in connection with the Air Force’s establishment of recurrence prevention measures and the stabilization level of the Pocheon area.
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