South Korean navy flight instructor becomes the service's first pilot to log 10,000 accident-free hours

A flight instructor with South Korea's Naval Air Command has become the first pilot in the history of the Republic of Korea Navy to log 10,000 hours of flying without an accident, the navy said on Sunday 25 October. Park Ki-hyun, an instructor with the command's 609th Education and Training Group, reached the milestone during an instructional training flight on 23 October, according to the navy announcement reported by Yonhap.

Park, who is 59, now serves as a senior civilian specialist employed by the military. Navy photographs released with the announcement showed him on the aircraft apron at the navy base in Mokpo, on the southwest coast, before a training sortie and with members of his unit after the record flight, the Munhwa Ilbo reported.

His flying career spans 34 years. Park graduated from the flight operations department of Korea Aerospace University and was commissioned as a navy ensign in June 1991 through the officer candidate course. He spent about 19 and a half years as an active-duty helicopter pilot, flying numerous operational missions over the sea, before retiring as a lieutenant commander in 2010, according to Yonhap and the Munhwa Ilbo.

The following year he returned to the navy as a civilian flight instructor. Over the past 15 years at the Naval Air Command's flight training battalion he has helped train 378 helicopter pilots, the navy said: 347 for the navy, 28 for the Marine Corps and three for the air force. The broadcaster YTN gave the same figures.

Park has flown six helicopter types. He began as a student on the OH-23GT trainer and went on to fly the 500MD light armed helicopter, the Alouette III maritime operations helicopter, and the UH-60 and UH-1H maritime utility helicopters. As an instructor he now flies the Bell 505 training helicopter, the Munhwa Ilbo reported.

The Munhwa Ilbo noted that the record carries extra weight because navy helicopter flying is known to be especially demanding. Flying over the sea offers none of the terrain and landmarks pilots use as visual references over land, and sea fog and other weather changes are frequent. Navy helicopter missions also often require long periods of flight at low altitude, below 500 feet, and at low speed, under 60 knots, which demands thorough preparation and intense concentration, according to the Munhwa Ilbo account.

Park was named the Naval Air Command's longest-flying instructor three years in a row from 2016 to 2018 and again in 2022, the newspaper said. A native of Pohang, he grew up wanting to join the navy or Marine Corps under the influence of his father, who served 27 years in the military, including as the senior noncommissioned officer of a Marine tank battalion.

In remarks released by the navy, Park credited the many comrades behind the number, including fellow pilots, air traffic controllers and maintenance crews who supported him from the ground. He said he would keep doing his best to train elite helicopter pilots to guard the seas from the air, Yonhap and YTN reported.

The record covers both halves of his career, nearly two decades of operational flights at sea and 15 years of instruction, and he is still flying. Park continues to teach student pilots on the Bell 505 at the Naval Air Command, adding to the 378 pilots he has already trained for the three services.