A light aircraft crashed near a riverside park in Taitung yesterday, killing the pilot and an American passenger.
The RANS-S6 airplane fell out of the sky at approximately 9am, hitting the ground nose first. It was flying over a farmer's field when it suddenly lost power, witnesses said.
Both pilot and passenger were alive when they were pulled from the wreckage, but died from their wounds at Tzu Chi Hospital's Kuanshan branch.
PHOTO: CNA
Local police said the light aircraft was owned by a private aviation association in Fenglin Township (鳳林), Hualien County. The pilot, identified as Chen Chun-jung (陳俊榮), 34, had flown light aircraft for more than seven years.
The passenger, Jon Eric Hope, 21, from Arkansas, was a member of an English teaching program organized by the Taipei-based non-profit King Car Educational Foundation, which provides English language instruction to children in rural areas.
Hope taught English at Jueisuei Elementary School in Hualien County.
Police, with assistance from the American Institute in Taiwan, have contacted the young victim's parents in the US and Chen's family in Hualien.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration has launched an investigation, police said.
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