The National Audit Office has called for the National Airborne Service Corps (NASC) to improve its maintenance procedures after 37.5 percent of its aircraft failed readiness goals.
The low level of maintenance in the nation’s air rescue and survey corps might impede its ability to conduct daily missions, the office said in a report included as part of the government’s general budget.
The corps has a fleet of 24 aircraft — nine Eurocopter AS365 Dauphins, 14 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks, and one fixed-wing Beechcraft Model 200 — and aims to achieve a readiness rate of 65 percent for each aircraft, the office said.
Photo copied by Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
However, the Ministry of the Interior does not have the maintenance capability required, the office said, adding that fleet-wide maintenance checks and repairs had not been conducted.
Last year, the Dauphins achieved an overall readiness of 69.45 percent, but their readiness has declined yearly from a high of 79.45 percent in 2018, it said.
For example, over a 90-day period, the three Dauphins assigned to the Kaohsiung unit achieved a readiness rate of 50 percent on 55 of the days, it said.
Five of the Black Hawks, or 35 percent of the fleet, failed to achieve the readiness goal, with the worst Black Hawk logging a readiness rate of only 31.51 percent, it said.
Over the past three years, four of the five Black Hawks, as well as the Beechcraft, have consistently failed to meet maintenance standards, it added.
Asked for comment on Saturday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said that a readiness rate of 65 percent was the bare minimum required for the corps to function.
“Readiness rates should be much higher than that or safety issues can occur,” he said. “The statistics showed that aircraft parts were not being replaced fast enough to keep up with their missions, which endangers the crews.”
The ministry must evaluate whether the problems stemmed from a lack of personnel, inefficiencies in the logistics system or a lack of spare parts, he said.
The low readiness rate on some aircraft might stem from the corps cannibalizing them for parts so that they can repair other aircraft, a practice that could increase the risk of mechanical failure, he said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) said that readiness rates are crucial to operational effectiveness and all agencies agreed that the standard of 65 percent was the lowest acceptable figure.
The army and the air force also use Black Hawks on search-and-rescue missions, and increasing cooperation and resource sharing between the corps and the military could potentially reduce the strain on the corps’ fleet, he said.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
RSS