Korean War The base was originally established during the
Korean War as
Suwon (K-13) Air Base and hosted
United States Air Force units. The base was evacuated on the night of 30 June 1950 in the face of the
Korean People's Army (KPA) attack, but the base was not occupied by the KPA until 2 July 1950. The base was recaptured on 24 September 1950 following the
Inchon landings. On 22 December 1952, a
Hellenic Air Force C-47D, Ser. No. 49-2612 was taxiing at Suwon Air Base when it was hit by USAF F-80, AF Ser. No. 49-0722, that was taking off, killing all 13 on board the C-47.
Postwar USAF units based at Suwon included: •
25th Fighter Squadron operating
A-10s from 1981 to 1989 •
82nd Fighter Squadron operating
F-102s from 30 January-20 February 1968 as part of
Operation Combat Fox and on rotation from 1968 to 1971 •
336th Fighter Squadron operating
F-4s from 25 March – 17 April 1977
Accidents and incidents On October 10, 1984, a corporately owned
Northrop F-20 Tigershark, AF Ser. No.
82-0062, c/n GG1001, FAA registration
N4416T, on a world sales tour, crashed at Suwon, killing Northrop chief test pilot
Darrell Cornell. During the last maneuver of the final demonstration flight, the aircraft stalled at the top of an erratic vertical climb and dove into the ground from . On May 23, 1996,
Korean People's Air Force Captain Lee Chul-Su defected in a
Shenyang J-6 (#529), landing at Suwon. On May 5, 2006 Captain Kim Do-hyun of the ROKAF's
Black Eagles display team was killed when he lost control of his
A-37B Dragonfly during an air show. On January 11, 2022, Major Shim Jeong-min from ROKAF's 10th Fighter Wing was killed due to an engine fire in his KF-5E during training. He stayed in the jet to avoid crashing into a nearby village. ==References==