Two US F/A-18s landed at an air force base in Tainan yesterday after one of the planes encountered mechanical problems, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The pilots landed at Tainan Air Force Base at 1:19pm after requesting permission to land because of a mechanical glitch in one of the aircraft, the ministry said.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration also confirmed that it had received distress signals from the F/A-18s.
Photo copied by Wang Chun-chung, Taipei Times
Records from the Air Navigation and Weather Service (ANWS), which is responsible for guiding the landing and takeoffs of civilian and military aircraft, showed that a fighter jet had sent signal code “7700” at about 1pm, meaning that the aircraft had encountered an emergency.
As the jets were near airspace over southern Taiwan, the ANWS asked its Kaohsiung Aviation Facilities Station to help guide the aircraft to the Tainan base.
There was no immediate word on where the US fighter jets were coming from or where they were headed.
“We can confirm that two US F/A-18s were traveling together on a routine flight today when one of the aircraft experienced a mechanical problem that required an immediate precautionary landing,” American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokesman Mark Zimmer said in response to a Taipei Times inquiry.
“Both aircraft landed in Tainan. Both aircraft and their crew are safely on the ground. We appreciate Taiwanese authorities’ allowing the aircraft to land in Taiwan when this emergency occurred, and accommodating the aircraft while any repairs take place,” he said.
The AIT is still assessing the situation and deciding how to fix the problems, he told the Central News Agency.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that the jets had taken off from a US base in Okinawa, Japan, and were conducting a routine patrol above waters north of Taiwan.
A military official, who confirmed that jets from the Republic of China Air Force 443rd Tactical Fighter Wing assisted the fighters with their landing, said he expected the US to send a team to handle any needed repairs, because the air force does not have any F/A-18 aircraft and does not have the ability to repair or maintain the aircraft.
There also were rumors that an EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft was to land in Tainan along with the F-18s, but ministry spokesman Major General David Lo (羅紹和) denied this.
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS