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.
F-16 training was temporarily suspended in the wake of the incident at Tengah Air Base. The fighter jet crashed shortly after taking off at about 12.35pm. The pilot successfully ejected from the aircraft and did not suffer major injuries.