The F-16 fighter jet, which took off from Tengah Air Base in Singapore for a training flight, crashed shortly after. The pilot survived the accident by ejecting himself from the plane. Making a statement after the accident, the Singapore Ministry of Defense announced that the training of the F-16 fleet was temporarily suspended.
DETAILED INSPECTIONS WILL CONTINUE
The Ministry of Defense stated that the suspension decision is a security measure and will remain in effect until the investigations show that it is safe to continue training, adding that the pilot of the crashed plane flew more than 2 thousand hours on the F-16 aircraft and detailed investigations are continuing.
Singapore has been using US-made F-16s for nearly 30 years, and the last time one of the fighter jets crashed was in May 2004. The 25-year-old pilot died when the plane crashed during a night training mission in the US state of Arizona. (UAV)