Two air force officers sustained minor injuries yesterday when two AT-3 trainer planes belonging to the Taiwanese Air Force Academy collided in Pingtung County, firefighters said later yesterday.
The firefighters said the two men were rushed to hospital for treatment. One sustained bone fractures, while the other injured his hand.
The Air Force Academy said the training craft took off from Gangshan (岡山), Greater Kaohsiung, at 3:10pm for a routine training mission and one crashed in Fangliao (枋寮), Pingtung County, at 4:25pm.
The second plane, which was also carrying two pilots, returned to base safely, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.
The pilots of the downed jet managed to eject before it crashed. They parachuted to the ground with minor injuries and were rushed to a local hospital, the ministry said.
The academy identified the two officers as First Lieutenant Tseng Kuo-wei (曾國維) and Lieutenant Colonel Chang Kuo-chiang (張國強).
Fifty-six-year-old farmer Huang Shui-lin (黃水霖) said he was riding on his scooter nearby when he saw a man lying by the roadside and another about 50m away in a thicket.
He called 119 as he helped one of the men out of his parachute gear, Huang added.
The cause of the crash was under investigation, the academy said.
The crash and similar incidents in the past have sparked calls for the US to sell the nation new planes to replace its aging fleet.
Taipei applied in 2007 to buy 66 F-16C/D jets, which have better radars and more powerful weapons systems than the F-16A/Bs currently in use, as a response to China’s growing military muscle.
However, Washington last year announced that it would help the nation upgrade its existing F-16A/Bs rather than sell it the more up to date jets.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS