South Korea’s Air Force to Upgrade F-5 Ejection Seats

South Korea’s Air Force will push ahead with equipping its fleet of F-5 aircraft with up-to-date ejection seats to help save the lives of pilots in cases of emergency, the service announced Thursday. The plan comes after a month-long investigation into the cause of an F-5F jet crash last month that claimed two pilots’ lives. The pilots allegedly tried to eject when their aircraft encountered sea fog when landing, but the ejection system failed because the older ejection seats work only when the aircraft is flying at an altitude of 600 meters or more, a spokesman for the Air Force, told reporters.Nearly 50 billion won ($4.2 million) will be spent to modify the ejection seats for about 150 F-5s flown by the Air Force between 2011 and 2013, he said.

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Posted in: Fighter jet,South Korea