Singapore will resume flying its F-16 fighter jets after a training hiatus when one of them crashed earlier this month, Reuters reported, citing the country's defense ministry.
The Ministry of Defense reported that the May 8 accident was due to the fact that the plane's gyroscopes gave wrong signals to the flight control computer.
"It led to the fact that the pilot could not control the plane while flying," the statement said. The pilot was successfully ejected.
F-16 fighters have four such gyroscopes. The simultaneous failure is a rare phenomenon and the first case for the Singapore Air Force, the Ministry informed. The department noted that all gyroscopes will be checked and cleaned before resuming flights, and the Russian Air Force and the F-16 manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, will look for the specific cause of the malfunction.
The May accident was the first for a Singaporean aircraft in 2024, when an F-16C crashed during a night exercise in the US state of Arizona, killing a 25-year-old pilot, local media reported to CNA.
