Most of the wreckage and recording equipment from a Mirage 2000 jet fighter that crashed into the waters off Hsinchu County on May 20 has been recovered, a senior air force official said yesterday.
The official said that the air force contracted a local company to undertake the operation after the crash, which the jet’s two crewmembers survived by ejecting themselves from the aircraft.
Some of the debris and electronic data have been sent to the jet’s manufacturer, Dessault Aviation, to identify the cause of the crash and the air force expects the French company will complete its analysis by the end of the year, he said.
After the crash, the military deployed naval vessels to locate the wreckage, which was found at a depth of 100m, the official said.
The air force then held an auction for the salvage operation contract, which was won by a Taiwanese company, he added.
The official said the air force had earmarked NT$27.2 million (US$918,000) for the recovery operation.
The Mirage 2000 wreck was one of two crashes that occurred in the same week, with the other being an F-16 that also crashed into the sea.
The air force subsequently grounded all of its F-16s and Mirage 2000s for a short period while it sought to determine the cause of the accidents.
F-16 A/Bs are tasked with the heaviest missions in the air force, which exact a large toll on aircraft that were commissioned 20 years ago, the official said, adding that the jets are starting to develop several problems.
Following the signing of an agreement with the US to upgrade Taiwan’s 144 F-16A/B fighter jets, the air force needs to evaluate if the aircraft are effective for protecting the country’s air space.
According to the air force, five A-class F-16 crashes have taken place between November 2011 and November last year, suggesting growing safety concerns about the aging aircraft.
In addition to the loss of aircraft and crew, these accidents have cost the air force more than US$2 million.
All of the countries that use F-16s have reported problems in the jets’ mission computer systems and engines, the official said, adding that upgrading the aircraft may not resolve all of the problems.
Instead of upgrading the aging planes, the air force should seek to purchase the US’ F-35 joint strike fighter jets, he said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS