RSAF F-16 crash at Tengah Air Base was due to component malfunction; fleet to resume flying
SINGAPORE: The crash of a Singapore F-16 jet at Tengah Air Base last week was due to a malfunction of a component known as pitch rate gyroscopes, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said on Saturday (May 18).
“The flight data recorder recovered from the crashed F-16 showed that its pitch rate gyroscopes gave erroneous inputs to the flight control computer. This led to the pilot being unable to control the plane at take-off,” MINDEF said in a media release.
All F-16 fighter jets are fitted with four such gyroscopes.
In the case of the Tengah Air Base crash on May 8, there was a simultaneous failure of the gyroscopes – a very rare occurrence, said MINDEF.
It added that this is the first such malfunction in the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF) entire F-16 fleet.
With the cause of the crash now identified, MINDEF said Singapore’s F-16 fleet will resume flying.
“But as an added precaution, each F-16 pitch rate gyroscope will be checked and cleared before resumption of flights,” it added.
