South Korea’s Board of Audit and Inspection has belatedly confirmed that an Air Force pilot caused a midair collision while attempting to take commemorative photos during a formation flight. The incident was not disclosed publicly for more than four years.
On April 22, the Board said that on Dec. 24, 2021, Maj. A, then assigned to the Air Force’s 11th Fighter Wing, was flying an F-15K formation mission. Two two-seat F-15Ks were flying together.
At the preflight briefing, Maj. A said he planned to take photos to mark his final flight before an upcoming personnel transfer. While returning to base after the mission, he began taking pictures with his personal cellphone.
The formation leader offered to help and directed the backseater in the other jet to photograph Maj. A’s aircraft. Without prior radio coordination, Maj. A climbed and rolled his jet to secure a better shooting angle.
The two fighters closed rapidly during that maneuver, and they collided despite evasive action. The left vertical tail of Maj. A’s aircraft struck the formation leader’s left wing, damaging both jets. Both aircraft landed safely and there were no injuries.
Investigators determined the accident required replacing six parts on Maj. A’s aircraft and 45 parts on the formation leader’s jet. Repair costs totaled about 880,000,000 KRW (≈ $660,000).
The Air Force suspended Maj. A over the incident, and he later left the service to work as a civilian airline pilot. The Air Force invoked the Accountability of Accounting Officials Act and ordered Maj. A to reimburse roughly 870,000,000 KRW (≈ $652,500), the full repair cost at the time.
Maj. A appealed to the Board for reconsideration. While he acknowledged responsibility for the accident, he argued he did not qualify as an “accounting-related official” and said the maneuver had the tacit consent of the formation leader.
The Board rejected his appeal. It found pilots qualify as “officials who use government property” and therefore count as accounting-related personnel. The Board also ruled Maj. A committed gross negligence by executing an unapproved, unplanned maneuver and noted statements from other pilots that the action was very sudden.
However, the Board sharply reduced the reimbursement. Citing a customary practice of in-flight photography and that a shooting plan had been shared before the flight, it cut the repayment to about one-tenth — roughly 87,000,000 KRW (≈ $65,250). The Board also weighed the Air Force’s failure to strictly control photography, the pilots’ safe return, and Maj. A’s long service and contributions to aircraft operations.
The Board said it also considered that Maj. A led the flight back to base under urgent conditions without causing additional damage, and that since his commissioning in 2010 he had served for many years as a fighter pilot, safely managing aircraft and assisting efficient maintenance through test flights.
The case surfaced only after Maj. A appealed the reimbursement order to the Board, which then made the audit report public.
