Witnesses last night said they saw what appeared to be two air force aircraft crash into mountains near the 116km section of the Suhua Highway on Taiwan’s east coast.
Following the report, the Ministry of Defense sent a search and rescue team to the area.
“We were fishing at the seaside when suddenly airplanes flew over our heads, and a moment later we heard a loud bang and the whole mountain was set on fire. The explosion was very loud,” one witness said.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
The witnesses said that while the planes looked like military aircraft, they could not be sure.
The fire brigade dispatched fire engines to the area as soon as the incident was reported.
Ministry of Defense spokesman Colonel David Lo (羅紹和) confirmed that an F-5F fighter and an RF-5 reconnaissance plane had taken off from the air force base in Hualien at 7:39pm for a nighttime training flight, but had disappeared from radar screens at 7:52pm. Lo identified the pilot of the RF-5 as Captain Hsiao Wen-min (蕭文民) and the crew of the F-5F as Lieutenant Colonel Chang Chien-kuo (常建國) and Major Wang Hung-hsiang (王鴻祥).
At press time, a search and rescue team was at the scene, but there was no news yet about the crew.
Taiwan’s aging F-5s are scheduled for retirement and will be replaced by F-16C/Ds, if the US agrees to the sale.
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