A Mirage 2000 jet fighter crashed into the sea yesterday morning, but its two crewmembers managed to eject to safety and were rescued.
It was the second air force jet fighter to be lost in less than a week after an F-16 crashed into the sea on Wednesday. Its pilot was also rescued.
All of the air force’s F-16s were grounded after the incident.
Photo: CNA
The air force said contact with the Mirage 2000 was lost at 10:18am, while the aircraft was on a training mission off Hsinchu County.
The air force said the crew, Lieutenant-Colonel Liu Yuan-hsiang (劉永祥), 38, and First Lieutenant Cheng Yu-teng (鄭育騰), 27, were rescued from the sea by an S-70C helicopter.
The pair, who were sent to a Hsinchu hospital, suffered only slight injuries.
The air force said the Mirage took off at 9:54am from Hsinchu Air Base and its crew ejected from the fighter in accordance with flight regulations after a red alarm light began to flash.
It said an investigative task force has gone to Hsinchu to look into the incident.
Taiwan procured 60 Mirage 2000s from France in 1992. Counting yesterday’s incident, four have now crashed.
Asked by reporters whether Taiwan’s air defense capabilities have been compromised with both F-16 and Mirage jets grounded, Air Force Chief of General Staff Major General Ding Chung-wu (丁忠武) said the air force’s 144 F-16s had all been cleared for operations yesterday, so the nation’s air defense was not weakened.
The military had originally planned to dispatch two F-16s to participate in a joint drill conducted by navy and Coast Guard Administration personnel on Thursday in waters south of Taiwan, but following last week’s crash, Mirage 2000 jet fighters were deployed from Hsinchu to take part instead.
The joint drill was held to show the government’s determination to protect Taiwanese fishermen operating there, following the fatal shooting of fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) by Philippine Coast Guard personnel in waters where the exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines overlap.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
Suspected Chinese spies posing as Taiwanese tourists have been arrested for allegedly taking photographs of Philippine Coast Guard ships, local media reported. The suspected spies stayed at a resort in Palawan, where from a secluded location they used their phones to record coast guard ships entering and leaving a base, Philippine TV network GMA said on Wednesday. Palawan is near the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and other disputed areas of the South China Sea, where tensions have been on the rise between China and the Philippines. The suspects allegedly also used drones without permission and installed cameras on coconut trees in the
RSS