Air Force recovers two gun pods that dropped from aircraft during training drill

Home > National > Social Affairs

Air Force recovers two gun pods that dropped from aircraft during training drill

Published: 19 Apr. 2025, 18:06

KIM JEE-HEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

KA-1 light attack aircraft [YONHAP]

The Korean Air Force said Saturday that it retrieved two gun pods that accidentally dropped from a KA-1 light attack aircraft during training the previous night.

A gun pod is a type of container for holding machine guns. The pods contained machine guns and approximately 500 rounds of 12.7-millimeter (0.5-inch) live ammunitions.

The gun pods were retrieved from a mountainous area in Yeongwol County, Gangwon. However, two empty fuel tanks and several dozen bullets that were jettisoned along with the gun pods have not been retrieved yet.

The Air Force mobilized one HH-60 helicopter and about 270 soldiers from 6 a.m. Saturday in search of the parts that went missing, according to a statement by the Air Force that day.

The rest of the search operations will take place Sunday, according to the Air Force, considering the rain at the search site.

The Air Force added that it has “confirmed no civilian damage” and that it is “sorry to have caused concern to people through the accident.”

On Friday at around 8 p.m., a KA-1 light attack aircraft jettisoned two gun pods and two empty fuel tanks while conducting flight maneuvers over Pyeongchang County, Gangwon.

The incident follows a separate accident last month on March 6, when a fighter jet participating in an MK-82 air-to-ground bomb drill at a training site in Pocheon, Gyeonggi, misfired on a nearby civilian area.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [[email protected]]