The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday sentenced three naval officers to prison terms ranging from 14 months to two years over the mistaken launch of a missile that killed a fishing boat captain and injured three others in waters off Penghu County last year.
The officers were convicted on charges of causing death by negligence, the court said in its ruling.
Petty Officer Second Class Kao Chia-chun (高嘉駿), who fired the Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile on July 1 last year, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Photo: Huang Chien-hua, Taipei Times
Kao’s supervisor, Chief Petty Officer Chen Ming-hsiu (陳銘修), was sentenced to two years, while Lieutenant Junior Grade Hsu Po-wei (許博為), who was in charge of weapons on the Chinchiang-class corvette, was jailed for 14 months.
The locally developed missile was mistakenly launched from the corvette docked at a naval base in Kaohsiung during what was supposed to be a simulated test.
The missile traveled northwest and ripped through the fishing boat Hsiang Li Sheng 40 nautical miles (74km) off Penghu, killing its captain, Huang Wen-chung (黃文忠), and injuring Huang’s son and two migrant workers on board.
On the morning of July 1, Chen requested four “fuse” safety connectors from Hsu to simulate a missile launch, the court said.
Hsu agreed to Chen’s request, even though he should have known that only two of the Hsiung Feng III missiles on the corvette had test and training sets (TTS) installed and only two safety connectors were needed for the test, it said.
After obtaining the connectors, Chen ordered his subordinates to link them to the four Hsiung Feng III missiles, even though he knew that two of the missiles did not have TTS on them, the court added.
After completing a missile circuit test, Chen did not notice that the missile control system was set to “combat mode” instead of “training mode,” it said.
He then left the war room for five to seven minutes, leaving Kao alone in the room simulating the missile launch procedure, it added.
Kao did not notice that two of the missiles were in “live-fire” mode and pressed the launch button for the No. 3 missile, the court said.
The missile traveled for about two minutes before reaching waters near Penghu, where it automatically searched for a target and ripped through the fishing boat.
Kao admitted to his negligence after the incident, while Chen and Hsu denied any wrongdoing, the court said in its verdict.
When asked why Kao received a lighter sentence, judge Yeh Wen-po (葉文博) said the degree of Chen’s negligence was more severe and he has refused to admit any wrongdoing, leading to the heavier sentence.
Huang Wen-chung’s family received state compensation of more than NT$30 million (US$989,936 at the current exchange rate) following the incident and reached a settlement with the Ministry of National Defense.
The Navy Command Headquarters yesterday released a statement saying that it respects the court’s ruling and would provide legal assistance to the officers.
Kao’s lawyer said Kao will decide whether to appeal after receiving the official verdict.
‘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