By This is a tragic accident, but what I find surprising is that two planes crashed into the same mountain:
Two older F-5 fighter jets crashed into a mountain in the eastern part of Gangwon Province, Tuesday, the Air Force said.
All three pilots were believed to have been dead as a search-and-rescue team found debris and body parts near the mountain in the evening, the service said.
The single-seat F-5E and twin-seat F-5F took off from an air base in Gangneung around 12:20 p.m. for a routine training mission, but the aircraft were missing in action about 20 kilometers west of Gangneung five minutes after takeoff, it said.
Two UH-60 search-and-rescue helicopters were dispatched to the area and later found the jets had crashed into Mt. Hwangbyeong, it said. [Korea Times]
11:16 am on March 3rd, 2010 1
I don´t find it surprising at all. If they were in a tight formation, the wing is pretty reliant on lead because wing focuses on him completely for position. Ref when the AF T-birds were flying T-38s and an entire formation of them crashed. Bad on the lead for controlled flight into terrain. Wingman pretty much were focused on lead and most likely didn´t know anything was up right up to the point of impact. A real shame.
Now…if they were in a route formation, that would be pretty bad if they both hit the same thing.
1:22 pm on March 3rd, 2010 2
I'm in the fields of Suwon tending to rice plants most weeks. F-5s fly regularly overhead and sometimes they're very close to each other. I can't judge the distance in metres very well, but it would less than a one second gap.
4:31 am on March 5th, 2010 3
tragic loss. condolences to friends and family…