A KF-16 fighter jet crashed into a mountainous area in Yangpyeong, Gangwon Province at around 8:05 p.m. Sunday, igniting a fire near the site. 

The pilot ejected safely, according to the Air Force, but some one-point-five hectares of forest has been destroyed as of Monday morning.

The single-seater jet of the 19th Fighter Wing was conducting a patrol mission when it went down due to an engine malfunction, forcing the pilot to make an emergency ejection before the jet crashed some 20 kilometers from the Wonju Air Base in Gangwon Province. 

The jet is said to have been equipped with air-to-air missiles but no civilian damage has yet been reported from the crash.

The Air Force plans to ground all KF-16s until the cause of the crash is determined through an ad hoc response committee headed by Brigade General Yoon Byung-ho, the chief of the Air Force Headquarters Office.

The latest crash comes some three months after two pilots ejected safely from a F-4E fighter jet that crashed into the Yellow Sea on August 12.