Injury toll rises to 29 as pilot error results in bombs being dropped on a civilian town

The number of injuries has risen to 29 in an unprecedented incident where South Korean fighter jets mistakenly dropped bombs onto a civilian town on March 6.

According to JTBC’s investigation, the aircraft pilots only realized "something was wrong" after turning back toward the base.

During a training exercise at the Seungjin Training Range in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, the deployed Apache helicopters and F-35A stealth fighter jets successfully hit their targets.

However, two KF-16 fighter jets never appeared at the range. Instead, they mistakenly dropped eight bombs on a village located 8 kilometers away from the training site.

JTBC's investigation confirmed that after dropping the bombs, the aircraft pilot sent a radio transmission to the Air Force Operations Command control room, saying, "Something is wrong."

By the time the command center received this transmission and began investigating what had happened to the bombs, all eight had already detonated. Neither the ground control center nor the pilots themselves realized the mistake until both fighter jets had returned to base after dropping their payloads in the wrong location.

During the accident investigation, it was revealed that the pilot had entered one digit incorrectly in the seven-digit latitude coordinate. An Air Force official explained, "The coordinate system consists of seven digits for latitude and eight digits for longitude. If even one digit is incorrect, the aircraft can be directed to a completely different location."

The second pilot, who had correctly entered the coordinates, still dropped their bombs by following the actions of the lead aircraft. The Air Force is also investigating whether the pilot skipped the pre-bombing visual confirmation process, which involves checking the terrain with the naked eye before release.

The incident raises serious concerns, as the fighter jets were flying at an altitude of 1,200 meters, and yet they failed to distinguish between the designated mountainous training site and a densely populated village filled with homes and greenhouses.