Salvaging the wreckage of a UH-60M Blackhawk helicopter that crashed last month while transporting a patient from Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) could take two to three months, Aviation Safety Council Chairman Hwung Hwung-hweng (黃煌煇) told lawmakers yesterday.
Hwung was at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief it about the council’s plans for this year, but Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) brought up the effort to salvage the National Airborne Service Corp helicopter.
The helicopter disappeared on Feb. 5 after taking off from Lanyu Airport on Orchid Island with six people aboard: three crew, an emergency medical technician, the patient and a family member of the patient. Their bodies have not been found.
Hwung said the council has detected wreckage in the sea and the Ministry of the Interior, which overseas the corp, has hired a contractor to salvage it.
The salvage operation could take two to three months, he said.
The wreckage was located 1,000m below sea level and special equipment is needed for such a recovery operation.
“It would be difficult to twist and maneuver the cables to retrieve the wreckage under such great pressure,” Hwung said, adding that Japan and Singapore have the technology needed to salvage wreckages on the high seas.
It is not clear whether Taiwanese operators could manage such an operation, Hwung said.
DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said that the government should acquire the capacity to conduct high seas salvage operations.
As Taiwan is surrounded by sea, aircraft are more likely to crash on the water than land, he said.
Cheng also suggested the government move Lanyu Airport from the northwestern half of the island to the east.
Aircraft departing the airport often need to deal with wind shear, he said.
The airport is also not equipped with auxiliary facilities to enhance nighttime visibility, Cheng said.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration needs to address such safety risks, Cheng said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS