A forensic examination of paint from a whale-watching boat ruled out a theory that it had been hit by a mortar on Oct. 20, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
Paint samples collected from the boat on Oct. 21 were sent to a national certified lab to see if paint from a mortar could be detected, Major General Lee Chien-ching (李健青) of the Armaments Bureau told a news briefing.
The test results that came back on Monday found traces of metals, including barium, lead and chromium, in the paint sample, but there was no trace of antimony, Lee said, implying that the element is used in paint for mortar casings.
Photo courtesy of a tour operator surnamed Chien
That meant that a mortar did not hit the boat, he said.
Lee did not say if there were any findings that could help identify what the object actually was.
The boat’s operator Chien Ming-yi (簡明義) said that the vessel was hit by a “black object” that fell from the sky while it was on a whale-watching tour off the coast of Yilan County with 29 passengers.
The object hit the cockpit’s windshield, cracking it, and then struck the stainless steel railing, denting it, before falling into the sea, Chien said.
He said that some of the passengers later told him that they believed the black object looked like a mortar or missile.
Their suspicions were further fueled when they learned that the military was conducting a mortar drill nearby when the incident happened.
The military said the tour boat was close to an area where Taiwan’s Armaments Bureau was testing mortars not loaded with explosives between 2pm and 4:30pm, but said it suspected the object might have been a piece of driftwood.
Lee yesterday said the military’s radar records showed that the boat did not enter the restricted area during the mortar testing period.
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