The Singaporean Ministry of Defense issued a brief statement yesterday confirming that two SAF personnel were dead, two were seriously injured and seven others were injured.
It said it would be investigating the incident.
Local firefighters only confirmed that "at least three heads and many body parts" were discovered at the crash site and sent to the hospital, but said that none of bodies were identifiable.
"We lost two pilots. Singaporean troops also lost two, while another two are in the hospital," Lee said.
Lawmakers were quick to interpret the crash through a political lens.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsueh Ling (
Saying that such a crash was a "terrible" loss of human life, Hsueh urged the MND to stop all exercises immediately.
Hsueh said "some soldiers" had complained to her before that the military insisted on conducting exercises despite the military's "outdated" equipment, saying that Lee should therefore assume responsibility.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (
"Accidents happen too often, and that has to do with the government's paying too little attention to the task of training pilots and to mechanical maintenance," Lin said.
Lin said that the DPP government should focus more on maintenance and less on pushing the legislature to buy expensive new weapons.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang,Shih Hsiu-chuan and Angelica Oung
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