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Air force finds pilots' bodies amid wreckage

After an 11-day search, the bodies of the two pilots who went missing with an AT-3 jet trainer were found yesterday on a mountain in Taitung, the air force said.

The bodies had been burned beyond recognition. They were found among the wreckage of the AT-3, which went missing on June 11 and was located on Saturday by an air force rescue helicopter. One of the bodies was still inside the cockpit, while the other was several meters away.

The pilots -- instructor Major Tuan Lien-sheng (段連昇) and trainee Captain Chiu I-feng (邱一峰) -- did not have time to eject from the cockpit, the air force said.

Given that the bodies are difficult to reach from either the air or ground, it will take some time to remove them for transport to Kaohsiung, where their families live, the air force said.

A ground search team will arrive at the site early today to prepare for the removal of the bodies and the wreckage of the crashed plane, it said.

No evidence has be found on the possible cause of the crash. Weather conditions had initially been ruled out, but given that the search for the plane had been plagued by bad weather for the past 11 days, the air force may have to re-evaluate the impact of weather.

The AT-3 went missing on June 11 after taking off from the air force academy in Kaohsiung's Kangshan township for a regular training flight in airspace between Kaohsiung and Taitung.

It disappeared from radar screens while south of the country's highest mountain, Yushan. The area, while small on the radar screen, measured up to 100km2.

The plane was not equipped with any radio device which could send out a signal after a crash.

The pilots carried such equipment but it can be activated only after the pilots have ejected and their parachutes have opened.

These factors contributed to the difficulty in locating the crash site. Even the air force commander-in-chief, General Li Tien-yu (李天羽), had to personally visit Taitung to command and coordinate the search effort.

The involvement of an air force chief in the search for a crashed plane is unprecedented. There was much speculation about why Li insisted on joining in the search for the AT-3.

Li, who was appointed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as head of the air force, is widely expected to become the next chief of the general staff, but further plane crashes could hamper his chances.

In late April, a twin-seat IDF plane crashed into a mountain in Nantou during a regular training flight.

The two crashes in as many months are bad news for Li, especially as an investigation into the IDF crash showed that the incident was caused by errors on the part of the instructor.
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