Service members take part in recovery efforts at a town in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, which was damaged by an accidental fighter jet bombing, March 12. Yonhap
The defense ministry said Tuesday it has partially resumed live-fire military drills after their full suspension due to an accidental fighter jet bombing earlier this month.
On March 6, two KF-16 fighter jets mistakenly bombed a town in Pocheon, some 40 kilometers north of Seoul, during live-fire drills, injuring 38 people and prompting the ministry to suspend all exercises involving live ammunition.
The ministry said it will resume live-fire drills involving rifles and smaller firearms Tuesday at units conducting operations and boot camps, excluding those in Pocheon, after completing safety assessments of live-fire training grounds Friday.
It said other live-fire drills, such as those involving machine guns, tanks and artillery, will resume in phases, while those involving aircraft and those in Pocheon will only take place after the Air Force comes up with preventative measures and the Pocheon area is stabilized.
Separately, the Air Force said it would resume flights from an air base in Gunsan, 176 kilometers south of Seoul, on Wednesday after conducting safety inspections. The two fighter jets had taken off from the air base before the accidental bombing.
The Air Force had previously grounded all of its aircraft after the bombing but resumed flights, excluding those from the air base, on March 10.
An interim Air Force investigation found that pilot error led to the accidental bombing as one of the pilots of the single-seat fighter jets entered the wrong target coordinates during preparations for the exercise.
On Thursday, the ministry's investigators booked the two pilots on charges of professional negligence resulting in injury and damaging military facilities.
The Air Force plans to review the two pilots' qualifications for flight operations Friday. (Yonhap)
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