Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Twin-seater trainer plane missing

ROC Central News Agency

2010/01/26 17:32:39

Taipei, Jan. 26 (CNA) A twin-seater T-34 trainer plane from Taiwan's Air Force Academy lost contact with the military flight control tower Tuesday afternoon during a routine training flight, with two pilots aboard, the Air Force Command Headquarters said.

The two officers on board the trainer were 25-year-old Chen Tze-yu, a second lieutenant who graduated from the academy in 2008 with a flight record of 110 hours and 48-year-old flight instructor Yao Chien-bao, with a flight record of 4,235 hours.

The plane took off from the academy at 1: 05 p.m. on a training flight in the air space west of Kangshan in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung County, the headquarters said in a press statement.

The plane disappeared from the radar screen at around 1: 40 p.m., the statement said, adding that the Air Force had already sent an S-70C helicopter to search for the missing plane.

The headquarters has also sent a team of flight experts to Kangshan to investigate the case.

(By Sinyao Shih and Sofia Wu) enditem /pc