[Anchor]

The South Korean Air Force has faced persistent criticism over lax military discipline following a series of accidents since last year, ranging from a fighter jet mistakenly bombing a civilian area to a machine gun falling from an airborne control aircraft. Although the Air Force apologized and pledged to restore discipline, footage obtained by SBS of an internal Air Force dinner party held in April showed a starkly different reality. At this "communication meeting" attended by Air Force generals, officers engaged in drinking and dancing during duty hours and even mobilized military band soldiers. The very next day, the wing commander's scheduled flight was canceled.

We begin with an exclusive report from reporter Bae Jun-woo.

[Reporter Bae Jun-woo]

Air Force officers dressed in flight suits jump up and down with their hands in the air, while a military band soldier hypes up the mood by playing the guitar and keyboard and singing.

Officers even form a line, dancing in a conga line.

The two men dancing in the center are a lieutenant general serving as the Air Force Education and Training Commander and a brigadier general serving as the commander of the 3rd Flying Training Wing.

This is video footage from a communication meeting hosted by the Education and Training Commander, held on April 29 at the cafeteria of the Air Force's 3rd Flying Training Wing in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province.

The event's original schedule consisted of a meeting, group sports, and an encouragement dinner, but the group sports were skipped, and attendees reportedly drank and dined for about three hours starting at 5 p.m.

An officer who attended the dinner stated, "Each officer drank about one or two bottles of soju, and a lot of beer and strong whiskey was consumed as well."

Criticism is emerging from within the Air Force that holding a drinking party before duty hours had ended and mobilizing military band soldiers for an officers' drinking party, rather than an official military event, could constitute a violation of service regulations.

Furthermore, the commander of the 3rd Flying Training Wing was found to have canceled an "on-site inspection flight" scheduled for April 30, the day after the dinner party.

Drinking is cited as the reason for the flight cancellation, but the Air Force reportedly did not conduct a separate investigation.

The Air Force stated, "The communication meeting was held to encourage service members whose morale had dropped due to a series of flight accidents."

(Video by Choi Jin-hwa | Graphics by Lim Chan-hyuk)

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[Anchor]

It has also been confirmed that a midair collision between trainer aircraft occurred at the 3rd Flying Training Wing, the very unit where the drinking meeting took place. Two months ago, two KT-1 trainer aircraft collided in midair and made emergency landings. It was learned that the Air Force kept quiet internally about an accident that could have easily resulted in casualties.

Senior Defense Correspondent Kim Tae-hoon reports exclusively.

[Reporter Kim Tae-hoon]

On the morning of September 1, a KT-1 trainer aircraft belonging to the Air Force's 3rd Flying Training Wing conducted a flight drill simulating an engine failure in the airspace near the Sacheon Air Base in South Gyeongsang Province.

At the same time, another KT-1 approached the base, circling to land.

Unaware of each other's positions, the distance between the aircraft closed, leading to a midair collision in which the wing of one aircraft struck the fuselage of the other.

Fortunately, both aircraft managed to make emergency landings, resulting in no casualties.

However, the wings and fuselages of both trainer planes were heavily damaged.

The Air Force deemed the damage repairable for operational use, repaired the damaged trainers, and redeployed them to the 3rd Flying Training Wing.

Although the Air Force reported the KT-1 collision to the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and compiled an accident investigation report, it has not notified the media even after two months have passed.

The KT-1 trainer aircraft requires particular attention to flight safety, especially since four service members were killed in a midair collision in April 2022. Despite this, it was reported that the accident report was not shared with all Air Force units.

With accidents involving fighter jets and transport planes occurring continuously since the March 2025 accidental bombing incident by a KF-16 fighter jet in Pocheon, criticism has emerged from within the Air Force that the military branch hushed up this latest collision to avoid backlash over slack discipline.

The Air Force explained, "Because the planes made safe emergency landings and there were no casualties, we did not make a media announcement."

(Video by Jeong Seong-hun | Graphics by Kim Han-gil)