The timetable for the nation’s AH-64E Apache attack helicopters to become fully operational has not been affected by a chopper crash in northern Taiwan in April, an army official said yesterday.
“The Apaches will become operational in 2017” as scheduled, Major General Chen Chien-tsai (陳健財), deputy commander of the Republic of China Army Aviation Special Forces Command, said at a news conference to present the conclusions of the army’s investigation into the accident.
The chopper, one of 18 that have been delivered to Taiwan by the US since November last year, was on a training mission on April 25 when it crashed into the top of a three-story residential building in Taoyuan County’s Longtan Township (龍潭), damaging four homes, but causing no serious injuries.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Asked whether the incident had affected the delivery schedule of the other 12 Apaches to Taiwan, Chen said it had not.
The fourth batch of Apache helicopters is set to arrive in August, while the final batch is expected to be delivered in October, he said.
They are part of a NT$59.31 billion (US$2.01 billion) order for 30 of the latest Apache model.
The army said environmental factors and human error were found to be the main causes of the helicopter crash and that mechanical failure had been ruled out.
The aircraft was enveloped in cloud during a training mission at an altitude of 120 feet (36.6m) as the cloud ceiling dropped suddenly to below 200 feet, said Major General Huang Kuo-ming (黃國明), deputy inspector-general of the army.
This affected visibility and led to spatial disorientation of the pilot, Major Chen Lung-chien (陳龍謙), a flight instructor who was flying the helicopter at the time, Huang said.
However, he said Chen should have relied on his flight instruments to keep track of the aircraft’s altitude and direction.
Spatial disorientation refers to the inability of a person to determine his true body position, motion and altitude relative to the ground or his surroundings.
Chen and the other pilot on the ill-fated Apache, Lieutenant Colonel Liu Ming-hui (劉銘輝), have been suspended since the incident and have also been receiving counseling to help them recover from the incident, the army said.
They will be able to fly again after a series of evaluations, a process that could take up to six months, Chen said.
On the question of seeking compensation from the US since the Apache helicopter was still under its 18-month warranty, Huang said the ministry was studying that possibility.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an army official said that although mechanical failure has been ruled out, the US may be seen as responsible for not training Taiwanese pilots properly on how to deal with sudden climate changes, like those that occurred on the day of the crash.
The US and Taiwan are the only two countries that use AH-64E Apache helicopters.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification