The day after a two-seater fighter jet disappeared last week during a routine military training mission over the Taiwan Strait, debris and body parts were found, but authorities are at a loss to explain what happened.
The crash on Oct. 20 revived decades-old rumors: Are the Penghu islands the Bermuda Triangle of Asia?
“The Bermuda terror,” a headline in the Chinese-language United Evening News read. “Three hundred dead or missing in 40 years.”
PHOTO: JEROME FAVRE, AP
Cable news stations aired grisly images of earlier plane crashes in the area, sparking debate in Internet chat rooms. The reports prompted Penghu officials to issue a statement disputing the Bermuda Triangle comparison, which they fear might scare away investors in a casino resort and other projects.
Experts dismiss the idea, as well as speculation that an irregular magnetic field affects navigation instruments.
Scientists have found nothing abnormal in the area, said Chen Wen-shan (陳文山), a geologist at National Taiwan University.
The pristine waters around the Penghu islands have seen their fair share of crashes.
Government records show at least three commercial planes, one civilian helicopter and five fighter jets have crashed in the area in the past two decades.
Several spy planes reportedly went down or were reported missing while flying missions to China during the Cold War in the 1960s and 1970s. The military refuses to confirm the reports, saying most of the documents remain classified.
The deadliest accident came in May 2002, when a China Airlines flight to Hong Kong broke up over waters north of Penghu, killing all 225 on board.
Seven months later, a cargo plane crashed in the same area.
The back-to-back crashes bolstered the Bermuda Triangle speculation so much that tourists all but shunned Penghu in the following months.
So far, the latest fighter jet crash has not rekindled as many jitters among the public, much to the relief of local officials.
Penghu County Commissioner Wang Chien-fa (王乾發) blames the accidents on the high volume of air traffic, saying most of the mishaps have been shown to be the result of human or mechanical failure.
“With so many aircraft flying over our airspace everyday, the chances of crashes are proportionally higher, and that's all,” he said in a telephone interview.
Yuan Hsiao-feng (袁曉峰), an aviation expert at National Cheng Kung University, pointed to the high risks of undertaking military training flights.
Ending a summer season that drew thousands of swimmers to its beaches, the island chain of 90,000 people is now getting ready to welcome windsurfers.
Tourism officials also hope that Penghu will benefit from a recent relaxing of travel restrictions for Chinese who want to visit Taiwan.
The islands, first settled by shipwrecked Chinese sailors 700 years ago, have an undersea ancient wall and other ruins. They are also an attraction because they were once at the forefront of the bitter Taiwan-China military standoff, tourism official Hung Tung-lin (洪棟霖) said.
The islands have long been seen as mysterious because of their inaccessibility and a past history of shipwrecks, he said.
South of Penghu, an area called the “Ditch of Black Waters” is a graveyard for numerous boats, said to have capsized in swirling seas during the height of Chinese immigration to Taiwan two to three centuries ago.
Japanese pilots and sailors are said to have avoided rough seas off Penghu, which was known to them as the “Devil's Sea,” when Japan ruled Taiwan.
Today, trawlers and cargo ships sail through the region safely.
“The mystic perception is fine but we hope people will not associate this area with danger,” Hung said.
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