The body of a female Malaysian hiker, who died while climbing Taiwan’s second-highest peak, Snow Mountain (Hsuehshan 雪山), was airlifted out by rescue helicopter yesterday.
Due to windy conditions in the mountains, it took two attempts by the twin-rotor B234 Chinook helicopter to airlift the body, before making its way to a riverside park in Greater Taichung’s Dongshih District (東勢) yesterday afternoon.
“The helicopter arrived at the scene at 6:54am, but encountered very strong winds in the mountains. The strong swirling wind made it impossible to hook up the ropes,” a Taichung Fire Bureau official said.
Rescue crews stretchered the body to open ground near a resting hut on the mountain trail, then, once the wind had subsided in the afternoon, the helicopter was called in again.
“The body was airlifted at 2:25pm,” the official said.
The B234 is a civilian model of the Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter, made for the nation’s airborne rescue services.
The hiker, 42, was with an 11-member group attempting to climb the 3,886m mountain when she fell into a ravine at the 10.7km mark on the trail.
Fellow hikers went down the ravine, but found the woman dead from severe head wounds.
When the incident was reported on Friday, authorities dispatched in a fire crew from nearby Lishan (梨山) and an Aboriginal Bunun alpine rescue team from the area’s Kalibuan Village.
The two rescue teams reached the accident site early yesterday morning to provide ground support for the helicopter airlift operation.
Authorities said local medical staff in Dongshih performed a post mortem to verify the cause of death as police finalized an investigation report.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS