The Navy yesterday confirmed press reports that a Knox-class frigate suffered engine failure off the coast of Keelung on June 19.
Navy Fleet Command Headquarters in Tsoying, Kaohsiung City, issued a press release in response to a story in yesterday’s Chinese-language Apple Daily that said the Huai Yang had suffered engine failure.
The press release corrected the report, saying the number of the ship involved was PFG-936, not PFG-937 as stated in the report.
“Seamen followed standard procedure to fix the problem. We have asked all Knox-class frigates to carry out strict maintenance checks to avoid a repeat of the problem,” the press release read.
The press release said that the sailors on the Huai Yang had discovered that there was insufficient engine coolant during a cruise assignment on June 19. Sailors turned off the engines to add coolant, but were unable to re-initiate the engines because the batteries were low.
Naval headquarters decided to dispatch a tug because the Huai Yang was very close to Keelung Harbor. Because a typhoon was approaching, another Knox-frigate was also sent to provide escort.
The Huai Yang was escorted back to Keelung at about 10am on June 20. Repair work was completed on June 27 and the frigate then rejoined the fleet’s regular assignments.
The Apple Daily reported that “PFG-937’s” engine failed, leaving the frigate adrift for 15 hours before it was towed back to Keelung.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said the incident was incredible.
“A battleship is just a big piece of iron floating in the ocean if its engine fails,” Chai said. “I cannot believe or understand why such a thing would happen. This is absurd.”
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its