A stalling engine and a winch failure were among the issues being investigated after a Mirage 2000 crashed on Tuesday night off Hsinchu County, the air force told a news conference yesterday.
Captain Hsieh Pei-hsun (謝沛勳) of the Second Tactical Fighter Wing was piloting the Mirage after taking off from Hsinchu Air Force Base at about 8pm on Tuesday on a scheduled night-flight exercise, the air force said.
Hsieh ejected when the engine stalled during the return journey and he was picked up from the sea about two hours later, it said, although there was an issue with a winch on the rescue helicopter, forcing a transfer to a coast guard vessel.
Photo: Wu Che-yu, Taipei Times
While it is certain that the Mirage engine had stalled, whether that was the leading cause of the incident has yet to be ascertained, said the air force’s inspector-general, a major general surnamed Chen (陳).
All of the Mirage jets at the base have been grounded while they are checked and a task force is investigating the incident, the air force said.
It refused to comment on the progress of preliminary investigations, citing the need for a professional review and cross-branch collaboration.
Reporters asked whether the engine could have stalled due a bird strike during the Mirage’s previous mission, the air force said that the engine had been inspected upon landing from its previous mission and just before Hsieh took off on Tuesday.
A Sikorsky 70-C helicopter was sent to extract Hsieh from the water, but it could not reel in its cradle after getting him strapped in, the air force said.
The helicopter took Hsieh to one of the two Coast Guard Administration ships that were at the rescue site, it added.
The air force said that it is investigating the winch incident.
Air Force Command Headquarters Department of Logistics Major General Tian Chung-yi (田忠儀) said that the air force had asked the subcontractor that manufactures winches for Sikorsky 70-Cs to disassemble the one that failed and determine what caused the incident.
Reporters asked why Hsieh was wearing a green flight suit — normally reserved for combat missions — instead of an orange one, which denotes training exercises.
All air force pilots have been ordered to wear combat-ready green flight suits in preparation for scrambles due to activity by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force, Chen said.
Asked whether the single engine on Mirages makes them more dangerous, Tian said that the designer no doubt considered pilot safety when creating the plane.
Asked how it would respond if Martin-Baker, which manufactures the ejector seats in Mirages, approached it to offer Hsieh a lifetime membership in its Ejection Tie Club, the air force said that it had not received any information from the company.
The air force has budgeted NT$11 billion (US$342.63 million) to upgrade the M53-P2 engines on its fleet of Mirages.
The upgrade is expected to be completed in 2028.
Additional reporting by Wu Che-yu, Liu Yu-jie and CNA
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