A sonic boom caused by an F-16V jet during training not only gave some Chiayi County residents a fright on Christmas Day, but also shattered the windows of some homes, which the military has promised to fix.
At about 10am, a thunderous sonic boom shook houses in Cusi (粗溪) and Longde (龍德) villages in Shuishang Township (水上), which are near an air force base.
Many residents ran out of their homes to see an F-16V flying overhead at low altitude, leaving two vapor trails behind it.
Photo courtesy of a reader via CNA
On Wednesday, Cusi Village Warden Huang Pao-chen (黃寶珍) said that more than 10 households in his village had reported that their windows were damaged by the sonic boom.
After reporting the damage to the military, it promised to take full responsibility, Huang said.
Officials at the Chiayi Air Force Base said that the damage had been evaluated, and the military would have the damaged windows and doors, as well as anything else that was broken, repaired.
The incident occurred during regular training, they added.
A Cusi Village resident surnamed Chang (張) said that it was not the first sonic boom to have happened in the area.
However, he and his neighbors had only ever been startled before, but this time, their homes had been damaged, he said.
Chang said he hoped that the military would review and improve its training procedures so that people living near its air bases are not always kept on tenterhooks.
The Chiayi Air Force Base is home to Taiwan’s first F-16V combat wing, which was officially commissioned in the middle of last month.
Taiwan’s 141 F-16A/B jets are being upgraded to F-16Vs by the US’ Lockheed Martin and Taiwan’s Aerospace Industrial Development Corp at a cost of NT$110 billion (US$3.97 billion).
Taiwan has also purchased 66 new F-16Vs from the US, with deliveries expected to start in 2023.
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