Taiwan Air Force Academy suspends flight training following crash
ROC Central News Agency
05/31/2022 01:54 PM
Taipei, May 31 (CNA) Taiwan's Air Force Academy on Tuesday suspended all flight training for its cadets and grounded all of its AT-3 trainer jets after an AT-3 used by the academy crashed in Kaohsiung during a training session earlier in the day, killing its pilot.
The Air Force is conducting a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the incident that killed Second Lieutenant Hsu Ta-Chun (徐大鈞), Air Force Chief of Staff Huang Chih-wei (黃志偉) said at a news briefing.
No signs of mechanical failure have been detected in the preliminary stage of the investigation, and the weather conditions during the training session were good with high visibility, Huang said.
According to Huang, Hsu's AT-3 trainer, which was on a solo training mission, disappeared from radar at 8:06 a.m. while in airspace about five nautical miles northeast of the Air Force Academy, which is located in the city's Gangshan District.
Responding to reports of an unidentified plane crash, the district's fire department later found the debris of the crashed AT-3 and the dead body of the 23-year-old Hsu in a field near Tiancuo 1st Rd.
The plane did not hit any structures or people as it hit the ground.
A New Taipei native, Hsu was a graduate of the Air Force Academy Class of 2021. He had logged just over 116 flying hours, 24 of them on AT-3s.
The crashed AT-3 had accumulated 6,068 flying hours and last cleared a major safety inspection n Feb. 17, according to the Air Force.
Tuesday was only the second time Hsu was flying solo, according to Huang.
Just before the crash occurred Tuesday morning, a flight instructor had accompanied Hsu in the same two-seat AT-3 for a training session of three take-offs and landings before being let off at the academy to allow Hsu to fly solo, Huang said.
Just before the plane's signal was lost, Hsu told the ground controller that the aircraft was operating normally, Huang said.
Meanwhile, even though some witnesses said they saw Hsu eject from the AT-3 before the crash, Huang said initial records showed no signs that the pilot ejected before the incident.
The aging trainers, built domestically by Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) in the 1980s, have been involved in 15 accidents, resulting in the death of 10 pilots.
According to AIDC's website, a total of 63 AT-3s were built.
Taiwan's military has ordered 66 new AIDC-made Advanced Jet Trainers (AJT) and is in the process of replacing AT-3 trainer aircraft and F-5E/F lead-in fighter trainers with these new aircraft.
(By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh)
Enditem/ls
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
