Taipei, Dec. 14 (CNA) The Air Force General Headquarters (AFGH) said on Tuesday it has formed a special task force to handle the latest flight mishap involving a French-made Mirage 2000-5 jet fighter.
The single-seater Mirage, one of the 60 high-tech warplanes that Taiwan has purchased from France, went missing during an interception exercise off Taiwan's eastern coast near Hualien, AFGH officials said.
"The fighter, operated by Major Chiang Chin-liang, lost contact with the military flight controllers at around 10:53 a.m." an AFGH official said, adding that both the Air Force and the Navy have sent helicopters and warships to search for signs of the plane and its lone pilot.
According to AFGH sources, the Mirage fighter No. 2036 took off from the Hsinchu air base in northern Taiwan at 10 a.m. and flew to the eastern city of Hualien for interception exercise. The plane, however, lost contact with the flight controllers during its second interception drill.
Major Chiang, 31, was a graduate of the Chinese Air Force Academy. The father of two young sons had a flight record of 1,181 hours. The missing Mirage's flight record was 275 hours.
This was the second mishap involving a Mirage fighter in as many months. On Oct. 15, a twin-seater Mirage crashed into the Taiwan Strait after a bird was sucked into its engine. Two pilots aboard the plane parachuted to safety and were rescued.
Air Force authorities said it will carefully probe the cause of the latest Mirage mishap. If necessary, the AFGH said it may ground all Mirage fighters for comprehensive security checks.
Since March 1998, Taiwan has lost four of its 150 US-made F-16 fighters. It is demanding compensation from Pratt & Whitney, the US maker of the engines that power its F-16s, alleging that an Aug. 15 crash was due to an engine malfunction. (By Sofia Wu)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
