Kyodo NewsThe Japanese Air Self-Defense Force has grounded its F-15 fighter jets since Sunday following a recent crash of the same type of aircraft in the United States, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday.
Ishiba told reporters that ASDF commanders ”instructed the suspension of flights of F-15 aircraft Sunday afternoon for the time being” until the cause of the crash is determined.
(Update 11/06) It looks like the forward fuselage had a structural failure. Its hard to tell but it appears from picture on KCTV5, St Louis that the forward fuselage had separated before it hit the ground.
Following the crash of a Missouri ANG F-15C from the 131st FS last week all non-critical F-15C/D/E operations have been temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure. This is not the first time in the Eagle or for that matter any first line fighter aircraft that has either had its operations limited or even grounded until the defect was found and inspected for. In my career I saw this happen a few time and the results were usually a one time inspection of the other aircraft in the fleet to make sure they are free of whatever defect was determined to be the main contributing factor to the accident. The preliminary investigation in this case indicates a structural failure may have occurred. Here is the article from http://www.af.mil/
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123074547
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