A 79-year-old Japanese man was rescued yesterday after spending the night stuck in a tree following a paragliding accident in a mountainous area in Pingtung County, the local fire department said.
The man took off from the Saijia Paragliding Club in Pingtung’s Saijia (賽嘉) at 2pm on Saturday and became trapped in the tree 10 minutes later, the department said.
He was found by a search-and-rescue helicopter at 3:42pm yesterday, the fire department said, adding that he was not injured, but was sent to a hospital for a checkup to make sure he was alright.
The man, who has 19 years of paragliding experience, told the rescue team that he was able to weather the cold night thanks to the windproof coat he was wearing and by using a paragliding cloth as a blanket.
Club instructor Fan Tseng-jen (范增仁) said that the man was blown off course by air streams that deviated his paraglider from its flight route, rescue workers said.
After getting tangled in the tree, the man found his location via GPS and alerted the club and his friends using a radio and a cellphone, Fan said.
The paraglider got stuck at an altitude of between 400m to 500m and did not have any food, but luckily, was carrying a bottle of water, Fan added.
The fire department said that 16 members of a Japanese sport aviation association have been staying in Saijia since Dec. 20 and go paragliding almost every day.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all