The air force yesterday condemned media reports which suggested one of its F-5F trainer fighters should be held responsible for an alleged near miss with a civilian passenger plane over Taoyuan's CKS International Airport on Sunday.
"The F-5F was not at fault in the incident. It followed the standard operating procedure [SOP] during every step of its training flight in the region at the time," said Colonel Chin Ping-ho
The incident happened at 9:45am Sunday when the pilot of a TransAsia Airways (
The approaching fighter was identified as an F-5F from an air base which is located parallel to CKS.
"We strongly protest against media reports which suggest that the F-5F was flying off course or without any flight control from the ground station at the time," Chin said.
Chin also blamed the TransAsia pilot who reported the lack of separation for not having "enough knowledge and sense" to judge the conditions at the time.
"A well-trained pilot should know what to do after he checks with the control tower about an aircraft flying nearby and is told that it is a military plane and poses no harm. He should not panic about it," he said.
"We have double-checked with the control tower at CKS airport that the passenger plane pilot was provided with the information [I have mentioned] right after he made the inquiry," he said.
"We do not know whether the TCAS [traffic alert and collision avoidance system] on the passenger plane responded to the presence of the military plane. Trans-Asia Airways refused to give us an answer."
Chin made the remarks yesterday at a regular press conference of the Ministry of National Defense (MND), where he made a detailed report on the alleged close call.
"At 9:45am on Sunday, the F-5F was undergoing take-off and touch-down training over the Taoyuan air base. The base runs parallel to the CKS airport and the distance between the two is 1,733m," Chin said.
"At that time, pilots on the F-5F made visual contact with a civilian passenger aircraft taking off from CKS airport. The two planes were moving in the same direction. Later as the F-5F turned right preparing for a touch-down, the pilots discovered that the civilian aircraft was turning right as well," he said.
"Throughout the process, there was never a near miss or lack of separation. The nearest distance between the two planes during the process was 0.7 nautical miles [1296.4m]," he said.
"The definition for a dangerous distance between two aircraft is a circle with a 500-foot [150m] radius. Any plane moving that close to another aircraft will be detected immediately by the TCAS on board or by the naked eye," he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique