The wreckage of an Army helicopter that crashed into a radio tower in a remote mountain region in Kaohsiung County on Tuesday will be re-assembled to facilitate an investigation into the cause of the crash, military sources said yesterday.
The debris of the crashed UH-1H Iroquois helicopter from the Army's Airborne and Special Operations Command has been recovered and sent back to Kueijen Army Base in Tainan County for re-assembly, the sources said.
The command is scheduled to hold consultation meetings over the next few days to discuss repair of the damaged radio tower, owned by the Police Radio System, and compensation for owners of banana plantations destroyed by the crash, the sources said.
PHOTO: CNA
The crash claimed the lives of all eight Army officers onboard.
Five of the bodies were recovered at the crash site on Tuesday, but rescuers didn't locate the remaining three until Wednesday noon when they were discovered lodged in the girders of the radio tower, which the helicopter had collided with in bad weather.
The helicopter's data flight recorder, or "black box," has also been recovered and turned over to the investigators looking into the causes of the crash.
The crashed helicopter was manufactured in 1974. Under a cooperation deal with US-based Bell Helicopter, the military's Aero-Industry Development Center -- the forerunner of the present-day Aerospace Industry Development Corp -- built a total of 118 UH-1Hs since 1969.
Despite the age of the aircraft, Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) said after the latest flight disaster that the fleet of UH-1H helicopters is still a reliable part of the country's airborne arsenal.
Lee also suggested that the cause of Tuesday's crash was most likely bad weather rather than the age of the aircraft.
Nevertheless, Lee said that all the remaining UH-1Hs have been grounded for thorough safety checks.
He also said a detailed investigation report about the cause of the crash would be unveiled at a news conference next Tuesday.
The minister said that the family of each officer killed in the helicopter crash will receive compensation of at least NT$15 million (US$453,360).
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
RSS