Although Taiwan's Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) has an emergency function that minimizes the chance of a plane crash due to human error, pilots have only now found out about it.
The previous two accidents involving IDFs this year were caused by human error, defense sources said yesterday.
The state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), the developer of the plane, reminded the air force of the manually controlled function after realizing what had caused the two IDF crashes.
The function, which is to be activated only in an emergency, could help the plane recover from near loss of control caused by improper piloting, AIDC officials said.
According to defense sources the crashes had a lot to do with improper piloting on the part of the flight instructor.
Both of the planes were twin-seat trainers, which carried a trainee in the front seat and a flight instructor in the back.
Air force investigations indica-ted that the first IDF crash, which occurred in April, was caused by the flight instructor maneuvering the plane in such a way that a negative G-force was created, a senior air force official said.
The instructor caused the negative G-force as punishment when the trainee failed to carry out instructions. The trainee lost control of the plane after repeated interruptions from the back-seat pilot. The plane crashed, but both pilots survived by ejecting.
The second crash, in Septem-ber, had a similar cause, said Erich Shih (
"The crash was also caused by the negative G-force which the flight instructor created intentionally to punish the trainee. It is incredible that the same mistake could be repeated again and again," Shih said. He quoted what he called reliable sources.
The crashes dealt a heavy blow to the air force, which had been taking pride in the IDF's relatively accident-free history, especially compared with other fighter planes such as the US-made F-16 and French Mirage 2000-5.
The latest crashes have brought the IDF fleet in line with the F-16s and Mirage 2000-5s as far as the air force's accident rate is concerned.
A total of three IDFs have crashed since the air force started using them, while four of the F-16s and three Mirage 2005-5s have crashed.
In an attempt to prevent similar accidents in future, the air force has asked the AIDC to help teach pilots how to use the fighter's emergency function.
The air force general headquarters yesterday declined to comment on the issue, saying it is not proper to discuss this in public.
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