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Air-force training jet still missing, search continues

Rescue teams continued to search yesterday for an air-force training jet and its two pilots missing since Wednesday afternoon, but appeared to have made little progress in tracking them down.

The large-scale search in the mountains near Kuanshan (關山) and Haituan (海端) townships in eastern Taitung County had found no trace of the plane or the pilots, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.

The AT-3 jet disappeared from radar screens at about 2:48pm on Wednesday at an altitude of 4,600m during a routine training mission.

According to the Chinese Air Force Academy, the whereabouts of instructor Major Tuan Lien-sheng (段連昇), 36, and his student, Second Lieutenant Chiu Yi-feng (邱一峰), 23, were still unknown.

Miners yesterday told a fire department in Taitung County that they heard an explosion on Wednesday afternoon. As a result of the information, the search and rescue teams will focus their efforts near the mine over the next few days, reports said.

According to an academy spokesman, no distress signals had been detected from the two pilots so far. No signals from homing beacons on the jet had been detected either.

But the spokesman added that the mountains made it difficult for the military to receive their signals.
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