Wreckage of Boeing-built F-15K fighter found in East Sea

The wreckage of a South Korean F-15K fighter jet that crashed off the east coast on a night training flight was found floating in the East Sea, the Air Force said Thursday.

"Around 2 a.m., an oil band seemingly made of plane fuel and about 50 pieces of the F-15K were discovered in the sea," an Air Force official said, asking to remain anonymous.

The F-15K disappeared abruptly from radar Wednesday night after it took off from an air base in Daegu. The fighter jet is believed to have crashed in the sea about 48 kilometers northeast of Pohang, and its two pilots seemed not to have bailed out.

Some wreckage from the fighter, including a 40-centimeter-long, cylinder-shaped missile, was found in the sea off Pohang, 350 kilometers southeast of Seoul, during a nighttime search operation by the Navy.

U.S. aircraft giant Boeing said it will fully cooperate with the South Korean Air Force in investigations into the cause of the fighter crash.

"We are supporting ROKAF (Republic of Korea Air Force) at this time, providing any and all help they might request," Boeing said in a statement.

The missing pilots were identified only by their rank and family name -- Major Kim, 36, and Caption Lee, 32. Kim is known as a veteran pilot with over 1,000 flight hours over the past decade.

In 2002, South Korea chose Boeing's F-15K as its next-generation fighter model in consideration of the long-standing military alliance with the United States, giving a new lifeline to Boeing's then-sputtering F-15 production line in Missouri. The French-built fighter Rafale beat the F-15K by a narrow margin in the technical phase of evaluation.

The F-15K that crashed is valued at about 100 billion won (US$105 million) and is one of four fighter jets delivered so far to South Korea in a contract. Under the so-called F-X program, South Korea is to purchase 40 of the aircraft by the end of 2008. Seoul, June 8 (Yonhap News)