The nation yesterday grounded its entire fleet of F-5 jets after two disappeared over the ocean in the afternoon.
Citing information from the Ministry of National Defense, the National Rescue Command Center said that four F-5Es took off from Taitung Airbase at 2:30pm for a routine training mission before two of the jets disappeared from radar screens 1.4 nautical miles (2.6km) east of Pingtung’s Mudan Township (牡丹), apparently after a mid-air collision, at about 3:06pm.
As of press time last night, rescuers were searching for captain Pan Ying-chun (潘穎諄), one of the pilots.
.Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Lieutenant Lo Shang-hua (羅尚樺), the pilot of the other plane, was found unconscious at sea at about 4pm and rushed to hospital. He later died of his injuries.
The nation manufactured 242 single-seat F-5s and 66 two-seater F-5s under license from Northrop Corp between 1973 and the mid-1980s.
An F-5 jet crashed and its pilot was killed during a training exercise east of Taiwan in October last year.
The pilot, who had ejected and was rescued, later died despite hours of emergency treatment.
In November, an F-16 was lost off the east coast minutes after taking off from a base in Hualien.
In October last year, sources said that the military plans to retire its F-5 jets in 2026, when the US completes delivery of 66 F-16Vs.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS