A probe into the recent crash of an AH-64E Apache attack helicopter is still ongoing and the investigation report will not be ready until late next month, military officials said on Monday in response to a local media report that pilot error was the cause of the accident.
Denying the report in the Chinese-language United Daily News, a military official familiar with the matter said the investigation is still in progress and it would take at least 45 days from the date of the April 25 crash before the report could be completed.
The investigation is being carried out by a task force assembled by the Ministry of National Defense and the army, and includes US technicians and representatives from the Aviation Safety Council, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, in response to a request to comment on the news report.
The task force will determine whether human error or mechanical failure was the cause of the crash.
Defense Ministry spokesman David Lo (羅紹和) confirmed that the investigation report would not be released to the public until the end of next month, at the earliest, after it has been reviewed by a team of experts selected by the ministry.
The news article said the investigation found that the helicopter’s pilot failed to respond properly to changes in weather conditions.
The Apache, one of 18 that have been delivered to Taiwan by the US since November last year, was conducting flight training when it crashed into the top of a three-story residential building in Longtan Township (龍潭) in Taoyuan County, damaging four homes, but causing no serious injuries. The two pilots on board were unhurt except for minor scratches.
Shortly after the crash, flight instructor Major Chen Lung-chien (陳龍謙) said changes in humidity and temperature had fogged up the cockpit windshield, forcing him to try to climb above the cloud ceiling, and the helicopter’s night-vision features had proved useless.
With no reference points in the clouds, Chen said, he tried as best he could to keep the helicopter horizontal, but because of the lack of visibility and low altitude, the aircraft crashed onto the building.
The helicopter was part of a NT$59.31 billion (US$2.01 billion) order for 30 of the newest Apache models that are being used only by the US and Taiwan.
Shortly after the April 25 crash, Taiwan’s 17 other Apaches were grounded, but according to the unnamed military official, they were put back into service earlier this month.
Under the deal that was decided in 2008 during the administration of then-US president George W. Bush, the helicopters are being delivered in five shipments that is expected to be completed in July.
The fourth shipment is expected to arrive in Taiwan late next month, one month behind schedule because of cargo shipping issues, according to the unnamed military official.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching