ARMY ATTRIBUTES CHOPPER CRASH TO HUMAN FACTORS
ROC Central News Agency
2007-04-10 12:17:56
Taipei, April 10 (CNA) The crash of an Army UH-1H helicopter in a remote mountain region in Kaohsiung County in southern Taiwan a week ago could primarily be attributed to human factors, a senior military officer said Tuesday.
Wang Kuo-chiang, commander of the Army's Airborne and Special Operations Command (ASPC), made the remarks at a news conference held at the Ministry of National Defense on the flight mishap in which the helicopter struck a radio tower and crashed in mid-air, resulting in the death of all eight officers aboard.
Quoting an investigation report by a special military team, Wang said the tragedy could be attributed to a combination of factors, including the pilot's failure to gauge the height of the tower, the crew's poor emergency response skills, and the pilot's failure to alter course or return to base when weather condition's suddenly turned for the worse.
All the debris of the crashed UH-1H chopper were sent back to the Kueijen Army Base in neighboring Tainan County for re-assembling to facilitate probes into the cause of the disaster.
The flight mishap claimed the lives of all the eight Army officers aboard. Five of the bodies were recovered at the crash site Tuesday, but rescuers didn't locate the remaining three until Wednesday noon when they were discovered lodged in the girders of the radio tower, which the helicopter had collided with in bad mountain weather.
The crashed helicopter was manufactured in 1974. Under a cooperation deal with U.S.-based Bell Helicopter, the military's Aero-Industry Development Center -- the forerunner of the present-day Aerospace Industry Development Corp. -- has built a total of 118 UH-1Hs since 1969.
(By Sofia Wu)
enditem/Li
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