An army CM-11 tank toppled into a creek in Pingtung County as it was returning to base from a training exercise yesterday morning, killing three of the five soldiers onboard, the army said.
The tank fell off a bridge into the Wangsha River (網紗溪), landing upside down.
The army quoted the driver, Private First Class Yang Yen-lin (楊炎霖), as saying that the tank’s left track was stuck and the brake was not functioning, and the incident occurred as he was making an attempt to turn left to cross the bridge.
Photo: CNA
Yang sustained only minor injuries and pulled himself out of the tank. The four others, who were inside the gun turret, could not escape through the turret’s hatches because the tank was upside down, he said.
Rescuers pulled them from the tank and sent them to a nearby hospital.
The four showed no vital signs at the scene, and Sergeant Chen Shih-kun (陳世坤), Corporal Chen Ping-yi (陳秉逸) and Private Chang Chih-wei (張志偉) were pronounced dead by the hospital.
However, doctors revived First Lieutenant Wu Te-wei (吳得瑋), though he remains in a coma, and he was transferred to Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital.
Eighth Army Command Commander Lieutenant General Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) and his staff apologized at an afternoon news conference, offering their condolences to the families of the five soldiers.
“The exact cause of the accident remains to be investigated. The driver’s description is the only account of the accident available now,” 8th Army Command Brigade Commander Huang Chung-shih (黃忠實) said.
Yang was trained as a tank driver following his enlistment and has about three years’ experience driving tanks, Huang said.
Asked if driver fatigue could have played a role in the accident, Huang said there was no training on Monday night.
“The CM-11 battle tanks were produced in 1991, and the tank in question was 25 years old. All tanks were examined prior to the exercise and no irregularity was found,” he said.
Yang was able to escape on his own because he was in a separate chamber with a separate hatch, Huang said.
“The four others could have gotten out of the tank by themselves if the gun turret could have rotated normally. However, the tank was upside down and the turret was stuck,” he said.
Yesterday’s exercise was part of a regular six-week drill, and it was not held in preparation for the annual Han Kuang exercises scheduled for next week, Chi said.
The CM-11 “Brave Tiger” tanks were linked to a graft case last year, in which members of the military allegedly received bribes and kickbacks to help a machinery company secure procurement contracts for the treads used in several models of combat tanks.
Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) has ordered Chief of General Staff General Yen De-fa (嚴德發) to lead a task force to investigate the incident.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS