Taiwan air force grounds F-5 fleet after fatal crash
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Standard after incident report, ground all old planes...
Taiwan's air force said Wednesday that it had grounded its ageing F-5 fighter jet fleet for urgent safety checks after one plane crashed, killing two pilots.
"All the flights of the F-5s have been halted until a thorough safety check is completed," an air force spokesman said.
It came after a twin-seat F-5F went missing during a training flight with two pilots on board.
The air force headquarters later confirmed that the ill-fated plane had crashed into the Taiwan Strait. "Some wreckage and part of the pilots' bodies have been found," the spokesman said.
The plane disappeared from radar screens in the late morning after taking off from the central Chingchuankang air base and heading for the Taiwan Strait on a bombing training mission, the air force said.
The crash -- the second of its kind in just over two years -- sparked concerns over the use of the jets, designed by the United States and assembled here in the early 1980s.
BTW we are still flying our F5 Interceptors and Trainers. -
Our F5 are upgraded but not the Taiwanese.
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The difference between Singapore and Taiwanese F-5 are minor.
The upgrades for the F-5S are mainly to radar and weapon systems. The flight and engines remain untouched.
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You are right. Maybe due to flight safety records. How is the ROC flight safety records? Anyway our air force were initially trained by ROC. Singapore has approximately 49 modernized and re-designated F-5S (single-seat) and F-5T (two-seat) aircraft. Upgrades include new FIAR Grifo-F X-band radar from Galileo Avionica (similar in performance to the AN/APG-69), updated cockpits with multi-function displays, and compatibility with the AIM-120 AMRAAM and RAFAEL Python air-to-air missiles.(Wikipedia)
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Didn't we strengthen the airframes to extend service life during the upgrade as well?
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But again we need to check what is the cause of the crash? Due to engines, airframe or avonics? Maybe just poor piloting skills? Weather? The assumption is always the engine problem.