SEOUL, April 19 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- The Air Force said on Saturday it has retrieved two gun pods that accidentally dropped from a KA-1 light attack aircraft during training this week, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The aircraft was conducting flight manoeuvres over Pyeongchang, approximately 125 kilometres east of Seoul, on Friday night when it jettisoned two gun pods and two empty fuel tanks.
No casualties or property damage have been reported.
"Starting at 6 am today, we mobilised one HH-60 helicopter and around 270 troops to search the area where (the parts) were expected to have landed," the Air Force said in a text message to the press. "We retrieved two gun pods in the mountainous region of the village of Jucheon in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province."
The gun pods fell together with a machine gun and 500 rounds of 12.7 millimetre live ammunition. The fuel tanks and several dozen bullets have yet to be found.
"Due to rain at the search site, in consideration of safety, we plan to continue the search and recovery operation for the fuel tanks and the remainder of the jettisoned items tomorrow," the Air Force said, adding it has confirmed no damage to civilians and an investigation is under way into the cause of the accident.
"The Air Force is once again sorry for causing concern to the people with this accident," it said.
-- BERNAMA-YONHAP
BERNAMA provides up-to-date authentic and comprehensive news and information which are disseminated via BERNAMA Wires; www.bernama.com; BERNAMA TV on Astro 502, unifi TV 631 and MYTV 121 channels and BERNAMA Radio on FM93.9 (Klang Valley), FM107.5 (Johor Bahru), FM107.9 (Kota Kinabalu) and FM100.9 (Kuching) frequencies.
Follow us on social media :
Facebook : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatv, @bernamaradio
Twitter : @bernama.com, @BernamaTV, @bernamaradio
Instagram : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatvofficial, @bernamaradioofficial
TikTok : @bernamaofficial
