The remains of 14 crew members of a spy plane that was shot down by Chinese fighters in Jiangxi Province 38 years ago were returned to Taiwan yesterday.
Surviving relatives of the crew of the Air Force's 34th Squadron, nicknamed the Black Bats Squadron, gathered at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport to receive the remains of the pilots and technical and information officers 38 years after the secret incident.
The 14 Air Force crewmen, led by squadron leader Colonel Chou Yi-su (周以栗), were aboard a P-2V, a US-made long-range patrol aircraft, on a reconnaissance mission in China's central province of Jiangxi when the aircraft was intercepted by Chinese jet fighters and shot down on June 19, 1963 -- no one survived.
The whereabouts of the reconnaissance officers were discovered by locals soon after the incident and their remains have been kept in Jiangxi under the orders of Chinese authorities.
In a simple, yet solemn, ceremony at the CKS Airport, Major General Liu Yi-tien (劉翼天), the Air Force's top personnel officer, covered the remains with Taiwan's national flag in a belated gesture of respect to the men.
The remains of the 14 men and their name tags are scheduled to be interred at the ROC Air Force cemetery in Hsintien, Taipei County on Dec. 10.
RSS