No abnormalities detected in Chinese fleets: Taiwan's Navy
ROC Central News Agency
2016/07/01 23:49:55
Taipei, July 1 (CNA) No abnormalities have been detected in China's naval or air force fleets after a missile was mistakenly launched by a warship during a testing drill from a military base in southern Taiwan earlier Friday, the Navy said.
"No abnormal deployments of China's warships and war planes have been discovered by us following the incident, and all such news reports are far-fetched speculation," Navy Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹) said.
He was referring to local media reports that said shortly after a Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missile was fired by mistake from one of the Navy's 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvettes during a testing drill at Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15 a.m., it was immediately detected by China's radars and that in less than one second, Taiwan's radars also screened abnormal radar signals from China's Fujian Province.
According to the report, the signals of Chinese radars returned to normal five seconds later only after the Taiwanese missile fell into the sea.
Earlier in the day, Mei said the missile did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait before sinking into waters off the Penghu archipelago after striking the boat.
The strait, which divides Taiwan and China, has an average width of 180 kilometers (97 nautical miles).
The missile hit a Taiwanese fishing boat "Hsiang Li Sheng" (翔利昇) about two minutes after it was fired, killing the captain and wounding three others. But it did not immediately explode or cause the vessel to break up.
As to a reporter's question on how the military could convince international society and mainland China that the incident was not orchestrated to coincide with the celebrations to mark the founding of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) rejected such a link and stressed that it was purely an accident by a soldier who had failed to followed standard operating procedures.
He urged the local media to stop making such speculation and reiterated that it was merely an accident, which carried no political motivation or any aim to escalate tensions in the region.
The Navy said later Friday that the blunder was caused by a Navy sergeant who set off the missile without following procedures and without any superior officers present while the missile was on the wrong combat and launch mode, instead of on the missile drill simulation mode.
(By H.H. Lu and Flor Wang)
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