Anchor: South Korea's Air Force said a pilot's coordinate entry error led to an accidental bombing by fighter jets in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, last week, injuring about 30 civilians and service members. The pilots were found to have had three opportunities to prevent the accident.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: The Air Force's chief of staff, Gen. Lee Young-su, issued a public apology for last week's accidental bombing of a civilian village in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, during a live-fire exercise.

Announcing the outcome of an official investigation on Monday, Lee apologized for disrupting the public's daily life, injuring civilians, and causing property damage.

The Air Force said one of the two fighter jet pilots mistakenly entered a latitude coordinate in the World Geodetic System 1984(WGS 84), causing the accidental drop of eight MK-82 bombs by KF-16 fighter jets last Thursday.

Neither pilot double-checked the coordinates, despite being required to do so.

While the pilots had a final opportunity to detect the error 26 minutes after liftoff, one pilot dropped the bombs despite noticing a slight difference in geographical features compared to training, and the other failed to notice on the cockpit monitor that they were outside the coordinates.

Lax command management was also found during the investigation, including the commanding officer's failure to receive an advance briefing from the pilots or conduct a review.

It took 14 minutes after the Air Force learned about the bombing for the operations commander to be briefed, and an additional 80 minutes before it was reported to the public.

The Air Force has pledged to improve procedures for double-checking target coordinates, expedite the briefing system in abnormal situations, and reprimand those found responsible for the latest accident.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.