Tokyo(Xinhua) : Japan’s air force has grounded its F-15 fighter jets following a crash of the same type of aircraft in Missouri in US last week, Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday.
The Japanese Air Self-Defence Force (ASDF) has suspended flights of F-15 aircraft since Sunday afternoon, Ishiba was quoted as saying by Kyodo News.
The suspension will last until the cause of the crash is determined, he said.
The minister also said that F-4 fighters would deal with airspace incursion “for the time being”, since the ASDF has also grounded F-2 fighters in the wake of a recent crash of an ASDF plane of the model at Nagoya.
A Missouri Air National Guard F-15C jet crashed last Friday while training in air combat manoeuvres. The pilot ejected and suffered a dislocated shoulder and broken arm.
The US Air Force then grounded nearly all its F-15 fighters Monday, as preliminary findings showed there might have been structural failure.
According to an earlier report from Kyodo, a planned joint drill between the US Air Force and Japan’s Air Self-Defence Force at Komatsu base in Ishikawa prefecture, in which F-15s from Kadena were to take part, has also been postponed.