Air Force finds debris from missing Mirage-2000

ROC Central News Agency

2018/12/04 23:06:02

Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) The Air Force Command Headquarters confirmed Tuesday that it has found debris from a Mirage 2000 fighter that went missing during a flight training sortie last November.

In a late statement, the Air Force said items including the nose wheel, hydraulic struts and mechanical engine parts were pulled from the ocean floor about 1.3 kilometers from where the jet vanished from radar screens.

The Mirage 2000, piloted by Captain Ho Tzu-yu (何子雨) of the Hsinchu-based 499th Tactical Fighter Wing, lost contact with the control tower at 6:43 p.m. on Nov. 7 last year around 60 nautical miles north of Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼), northern Taiwan.

At the time, Ho was taking part in a regular nighttime training exercise.

Since the incident, the military has only been able to confirm where contact was lost with the aircraft, it had until today found no signs of the pilot nor the plane.

An initial inspection of the debris found Tuesday suggests it comes from Ho's plane, the Air Force said.

However, the flight data recorder (FDR), also known as the black box, of the missing aircraft has yet to be found, it added.

The search effort is currently ongoing.

(By Matt Yu and Ko Lin)
Enditem/AW