One fisherman was killed and three injured after a locally developed supersonic anti-ship missile was launched from one of the navy’s 500-tonne corvettes docked at Zuoying (左營) Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15am yesterday, the navy said.
The Hsiung Feng III missile did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait, it said, adding that the firing was most likely caused by human error.
At a news conference called in the wake of the incident, Navy Command Headquarters chief of staff Vice Admiral Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹) said the corvette was taking part in an exercise at the base when the missile was launched by mistake.
Photo: CNA
The missile fell into waters near Penghu County about 40 nautical miles (74.1km) northwest of the base more than two minutes after its launch during an exercise, Mei said, adding the missile fell into waters on the Taiwan side of the median line.
The Taiwan Strait has an average width of 180km.
A chart provided by the navy showed that the simulated target was in the Taiwan Strait, northwest of the harbor and southeast of the offshore county of Penghu.
Photo: Screengrab by Huang Chien-hua, courtesy of the ROC Navy
Mei said that after the incident, the navy sent a helicopter to the area to make sure the missile had not caused any harm, adding that other navy vessels were also dispatched to the area to help with the search.
Following an initial report that there was an “explosion” on a fishing boat in the Taiwan Strait at about the same time as the missile incident, it was later confirmed that a Taiwanese fishing boat was hit by the missile, causing the death of its captain and injuring the three others on the boat.
In a statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that Chief of General Staff Yen De-fa (嚴德發) was leading a task force to conduct further investigation into the incident.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) instructed deputy chiefs of general staff to head to an emergency center to deal with follow-up issues immediately after the incident occurred, it added.
“Initial information showed that the operator[s] did not follow standard procedure” for testing military equipment during a drill, Mei said.
Mei declined to answer questions about the standard operating procedure for the simulation of a Hsiung Feng III missile launch, saying he could not disclose classified information.
Photo: CNA
The locally developed Hsiung Feng III missile reportedly has a range of up to 300km.
Mei said a non-commissioned officer should have been familiar with the procedures involved in the missile exercise, but further investigation was needed to determine why the missile was fired, he added.
When asked whether the missile might have been launched intentionally, Mei said investigators would look at all possibilities.
He said that yesterday’s exercise was a regular test of military equipment.
The incident occurred as the Chinese Communist Party held an event in Beijing to mark the 95th anniversary of the party’s founding.
Asked whether China took any military action in the wake of the incident, Mei said that the navy did not notice any “abnormal actions” by Chinese military aircraft or vessels.
One report, citing an unnamed navy source, said that radar signals indicated some abnormal activity among Chinese military posts after the missile was launched, but Mei said the report was inaccurate.
Mei said there were no Chinese electronic surveillance ships in the area where the missile landed when asked whether Chinese ships might have been trying to collect military intelligence, such as the missile’s electronic signature.
Mei said that the navy has no direct communication mechanism with China.
The navy passed on information to the National Security Council and other government agencies to deal with follow-up measures, he said.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who was in Los Angeles on the return leg of a diplomatic trip to Latin America, received a briefing on the incident and that she has asked government agencies to investigate.
The navy yesterday held a third news conference at 7:30pm, with navy Commander Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光) saying a sergeant did not follow proper procedures in the drill and performed the testing by himself without any supervisors present.
Seven service members, including the sergeant and Huang Shu-kuang, are to be disciplined, said Huang Shu-Kuang, who called the launch a very serious mistake.
Meanwhile, four people involved in the accident, including the sergeant who allegedly launched the missile and the captain of the military vessel, have been taken to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning.
‘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
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
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
RSS