The wreckage of an Army helicopter that crashed into a radio tower in a remote mountain region in Kaohsiung County on Tuesday will be re-assembled to facilitate an investigation into the cause of the crash, military sources said yesterday.
The debris of the crashed UH-1H Iroquois helicopter from the Army's Airborne and Special Operations Command has been recovered and sent back to Kueijen Army Base in Tainan County for re-assembly, the sources said.
The command is scheduled to hold consultation meetings over the next few days to discuss repair of the damaged radio tower, owned by the Police Radio System, and compensation for owners of banana plantations destroyed by the crash, the sources said.
PHOTO: CNA
The crash claimed the lives of all eight Army officers onboard.
Five of the bodies were recovered at the crash site on Tuesday, but rescuers didn't locate the remaining three until Wednesday noon when they were discovered lodged in the girders of the radio tower, which the helicopter had collided with in bad weather.
The helicopter's data flight recorder, or "black box," has also been recovered and turned over to the investigators looking into the causes of the crash.
The crashed helicopter was manufactured in 1974. Under a cooperation deal with US-based Bell Helicopter, the military's Aero-Industry Development Center -- the forerunner of the present-day Aerospace Industry Development Corp -- built a total of 118 UH-1Hs since 1969.
Despite the age of the aircraft, Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) said after the latest flight disaster that the fleet of UH-1H helicopters is still a reliable part of the country's airborne arsenal.
Lee also suggested that the cause of Tuesday's crash was most likely bad weather rather than the age of the aircraft.
Nevertheless, Lee said that all the remaining UH-1Hs have been grounded for thorough safety checks.
He also said a detailed investigation report about the cause of the crash would be unveiled at a news conference next Tuesday.
The minister said that the family of each officer killed in the helicopter crash will receive compensation of at least NT$15 million (US$453,360).
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard