The former head of the air force’s weather center cannot work in the public sector for two years after being found guilty of gross negligence in actions deemed partly responsible for a military helicopter crash in 2020 that killed eight military officers, including chief of the general staff general Shen Yi-ming (沈一鳴).
Although proceedings of the Judicial Yuan’s Disciplinary Court are confidential, a source told the Central News Agency on condition of anonymity that the court, which is responsible for punishing civil servants, gave Jen I-wei (任亦偉) the two-year suspension.
Jen was head of the weather center at the Air Force Weather Wing’s No. 8 Base when the Black Hawk crashed into the mountains in New Taipei City on Jan. 2, 2020.
The court’s decision came after the Control Yuan in July 2020 impeached Jen and Chou Shih-kai (周士凱), an officer at the weather center, over negligence related to the crash.
Citing insufficient evidence, the Disciplinary Court decided not to punish Chou. The ruling can be appealed.
The Control Yuan’s impeachment said that the Black Hawk helicopter, carrying 13 military personnel to a base in Yilan County’s Dongao Township (東澳) for an inspection before the Lunar New Year holiday, crashed into the mountains of New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來) on Jan. 2, 2020.
Eight of the passengers, including Shen, died in the crash.
An investigative report released in February 2020 ruled out mechanical failure as the cause.
It found that the crash was most likely caused by a combination of human factors and a sudden change in weather conditions in the mountains.
The air force said that the pilot tried to pull up for visibility when he flew into cloud cover that suddenly formed before the chopper crashed into the mountains.
The air force punished five senior officers, including a commander and a deputy commander, over the crash.
The Control Yuan report showed that Jen, who was responsible for the pre-mission briefing that day, told the pilots that their mission was “good to go,” despite patches of clouds near the mountains along the flight route.
The probe found that Jen’s forecast was based on visible cloud imagery from earlier that day, but that he had failed to check near-infrared imaging, or true color imaging, along the flight path, which would have provided the pilots with a more accurate forecast.
During interviews, Jen told Control Yuan members that he did not check near-infrared images, which was deemed to be serious negligence.
Near-infrared images for that day showed low-layer clouds along the flight route that could lead to low visibility, the Control Yuan report said.
The Control Yuan said that Chou was supposed to update the pilots on the latest weather conditions along the route, but had failed to do so, which should be punished.
Yesterday, the air force said that it respected the court’s rulings, adding that corrective measures put in place since the crash should ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
RSS