South Korea air force blames F-15K mid-air collision on selfie filming
Auditors cite lax rules on in-flight recording, pilot repays fraction of $600,000 damage
Images
A South Korean air force F-15K takes off during from Gunsan airbase. Officials found a wingman pilot had attempted to record images to mark his final flight with his unit. Photograph: Reuters
theguardian.com
South Korea’s air force says a mid-air collision between two F-15K fighter jets in December 2021 was triggered by pilots filming and taking selfies during a formation flight near Daegu, causing roughly 880 million won in damage.
According to Reuters, citing a report by the state Board of Audit and Inspection, the wingman pilot sharply climbed and banked without clearance to improve a camera angle as another pilot filmed from the lead jet. Both crews attempted evasive action, but the wingman’s tail struck the lead aircraft’s wing. No one was injured, but the jets required repairs.
The audit’s focus is less on a single reckless manoeuvre than on what it says about supervision and incentives inside a high-cost, high-risk organisation. The auditors criticised the air force for lax controls on in-flight filming at the time, suggesting the behaviour was not an isolated lapse but something that had not been clearly prohibited, monitored, or punished before it produced an accident. When rules are ambiguous and enforcement is sporadic, pilots can treat cockpit time as personal content creation—until metal meets metal.
The accountability measures described so far are also revealing. The audit board held the wingman primarily responsible and ordered him to repay about a tenth of the repair costs, while the air force said he had been suspended from flying duties, disciplined, and has since left the military. The remainder of the bill is effectively absorbed by the institution and its budget—an arrangement that can dilute deterrence when the largest costs are socialised.
The episode lands at a time when South Korea is investing heavily in readiness and deterrence amid North Korea’s missile testing and broader regional tensions. Expensive platforms like the F-15K are purchased for reliability and capability, but operational safety depends on routine discipline: clear procedures, credible oversight, and a chain of command willing to intervene before a “last flight” becomes a photo opportunity.
South Korea’s air force says it is tightening flight safety rules to prevent a repeat.
The collision’s repair bill was about $600,000, and the pilot ordered to repay part of it was asked for roughly one-tenth.