Safety testing of the air force’s Mirage 2000 jets is complete and the aircraft are set to return to the skies today, the military said, after a crash earlier this month grounded the fleet.
A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter jet crashed on Sept. 10, leading the air force to ground the 53-strong fleet to implement strict air-safety testing.
A Mirage 2000-5 aircraft, serial No. 2047, was conducting nighttime exercises when the engine stalled, causing the plane to go down off the coast of Hsinchu County.
Photo: Liu Yu-chieh, Taipei Times
The pilot, Captain Hsieh Pei-hsun (謝沛勳) of the Second Tactical Fighter Wing, parachuted from the aircraft and was rescued by a coast guard vessel at 10:39pm.
He was sent to a hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries and was discharged Sept. 13.
Recovery of the aircraft began on Wednesday last week.
All aircraft undergo weekly and pre-flight checks, but this recent round of testing focused on potential causes of the failure with relation to the engines and fuel system, with an emphasis on the drive shaft, fuel filter, fuel pump and ejector seat, the Ministry of National Defense told the Youth Daily News today.
The operation relied on the cooperation of ground personnel, utilizing cross-disciplinary professional knowledge and technical skill to quickly complete checks and enable exercises to resume, the military said.
Weather permitting, the fleet would be ready to return to the skies today after 13 days, it added.
The crash was the ninth serious incident involving the air force’s Mirage 2000s since Taiwan acquired 60 Mirage fighters starting in 1997.
In the nearly 30-year flight history of Taiwan’s Mirage 2000s, seven of the aircraft have crashed, with five pilots killed and eight rescued in such incidents.
Additional reporting by CNA
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its