Air force to continue with search for its missing jet

The air force said yesterday that despite having found no trace of an AT-3 jet trainer and its two pilots, missing since last Wednesday, it would continue searching until their fate was known.

As of yesterday, planes and helicopters had flown 46 sorties and 270 people were searching in a 100km2 area of the central mountain range south of the country's highest mountain, Yushan.

The search included RF-5 reconnaissance aircraft, seldom used for non-military action.

The RF-5 provided aerial photographs of the areas where the air force believed the AT-3 had disappeared. These areas are in Taitung County, but the search zone is much larger.

The army has now sent 114 special operations troops to join the search, with another 200 standing by.

The deployment of spy planes and special operations troops makes this search the largest in recent years.

The search was also given unprecedented publicity because air force commander-in-chief General Li Tien-yu (李天羽) went in person to Taitung to coordinate the search.

At a regular defense ministry press conference yesterday, air force political warfare chief Lieutenant General Liu Chuan-li (劉創黎), who spoke on behalf of Li, said the search will continue until the military gets a result.

The twin-seat AT-3 went missing last Wednesday during a regular training flight from its base at the air force academy in Kanshan, Kaohsiung County.

The two pilots were training for simulated stall conditions when it went missing, the air force said.

Liu the search had been futile so far mainly because of the landscape and bad weather.

"The mountainous areas where we think the plane disappeared are covered with dense forests. The forests are primitive ones with poor access," Liu said.

"It is difficult for ground search teams to move even 100m in these forests. It is also not easy to look for traces of the plane from the air since the forests are so dense," he said.