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Defense ministry urged to list stock of 'flying coffins'

Family members of the victims of Tuesday's military helicopter crash in Kaohsiung County weep and pray as rescuers search for the last three occupants yesterday. The remaining bodies were discovered later yesterday, bringing the death toll to eight. PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

Three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday initiated a proposal urging the Ministry of National Defense (MND) to publicize an inventory of all outdated armaments still in use by the military.

The soldiers and their families have the right to know how many "flying coffins" the ministry is still using, DPP legislators Hsueh Ling (薛凌), Sandy Yen (莊和子) and Wang Shu-hui (王淑慧) said in a joint statement yesterday.

"If the MND fails to make such a list and apply pressure on the pan-blue camp, the pan-blue camp will never feel the urgent need for the military to renew its armaments," the statement said.

Based on a list provided by the three lawmakers, at least 12 kinds of armaments have been in service for more than 25 years, including S2T antisubmarine planes and UH-1H helicopters -- the same model as the chopper that crashed on Tuesday.

Commenting on the tragedy in which eight servicemen died, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥 化民), a retired army lieutenant general, said yesterday that the UH-1H helicopter, which had been deployed for more than 30 years, should have been retired a long time ago.

"The engine's mechanism has been on the wane ... and yet the army still dared to fly the helicopter with a full-load capacity," he said.

"It's a shame that the army has never put chopper replacement high on the agenda. The army's budget has long been ignored," he added.

Shuai, who said he often traveled by helicopter when he was in the army, said that the tragedy was also a result of a lack of awareness on security issues.

"The group scout leader and his deputy shouldn't have been aboard at the same time, and the commander should have canceled the flight given the terrible weather," he said.

In another press conference, several DPP legislators blamed the crash on the pan-blue legislators for blocking the review of the nation's arms procurement budgets.

A KMT lawmaker slammed back that helicopter replacement was not even included in the government's arms procurement proposal.

"The government has been busy pushing for the purchase of three major weapon systems to please the US, leaving out the fact that the helicopters are too old to be on active duty," said KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方).

"Over the past seven years, the DPP government never sent a budget [for replacing the helicopters] to the legislature for review," he added.
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