Taiwan's "Han Kuang Exercise" ends up with most military fatalities

PLA Daily

Source: China Military Online
Editor: Chen Zhuo

2020-07-17 19:54:16

BEIJING, July17 -- An OH-58D Kiowa light observation helicopter participating in the 36th Han Kuang exercise crashed on July 16, 2020, killing two pilots. United Daily News, a newspaper in Taiwan, reported that together with Taiwan marine corps' boat overturning accident, which killed two officers and left one in a coma, this year has seen the worst casualties in the history of the Han Kuang exercises.

Reports also mentioned the casualties that had occurred in previous Han Kuang serials. In the 34th one in 2018, a senior private of the army special warfare force was seriously injured during the airborne training, because he failed to deploy both the parachute and the reserve parachute. An F-16 fighter jet crashed in the mountains of northern Taiwan, pilot being killed. In 2017, an army's CM11 armoured vehicle plunged from a three-meter bridge in heavy rain on its way returning to barracks after drill, leaving four dead and one injured.

Earlier, in the 23rd Han Kuang exercise in 2007, an air force F-5F fighter jet slammed into a building housing the Singaporean personnel who had been training in Taiwan under the "Starlight Program", with four dead and nine injured.

And during the second rehearsal before the 11th Han Kuang exercise in 1994, Taiwan naval patrol frigate Cheng Kung shot down a small jet aircraft contracting the towing target business during the live-fire training, causing four deaths onboard the plane.