Singapore to resume flying F-16 jets after crash this month

By Reuters May 18, 2024 | 04:42 pm PT

F-16 planes from the Singapore Air Force fly over Marina Bay Sands during Singapore's Golden Jubilee, in Singapore August 9, 2015. Photo by Reuters

Singapore will resume flying its F-16 fleet after suspending training when one of the jets crashed earlier this month, the defense ministry on Saturday.

The defense ministry said the May 8 crash was due to the plane's pitch rate gyroscopes giving erroneous inputs to the flight control computer.

"This led to the pilot being unable to control the plane at take-off," the statement said. The pilot ejected successfully.

F-16 fighter jets are fitted with four such gyroscopes. A simultaneous failure is very rare occurrence and a first for Singapore's fleet, the ministry said.

It added that all pitch rate gyroscopes will be checked and cleared before flights resume, and that the air force and F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin will look into the specific cause behind the malfunction.

The May crash was the first one for a Singapore fighter jet since 2004 when an F-16C went down during a night training mission in the U.S. state of Arizona, killing the 25-year-old pilot, according to local media CNA.