The flight data recorder of a Mirage 2000 fighter jet that went missing nearly two years ago was recovered earlier this month and an analysis of its data might help explain the cause of the incident, air force officials said yesterday.
The black box was recovered from the bottom of the ocean off the northern coast of Taiwan on Oct. 3 by a research vessel operated by National Applied Research Laboratories’ Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI), an official said on condition of anonymity.
TORI, commissioned by the air force through a commercial bid, used its 2,629-tonne research vessel Legend (勵進) in the search, TORI Director Wang Chau-chang (王兆璋) said, adding that a team of air force personnel were also aboard the ship to aid its crew.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
Essential to the search was a remotely operated vehicle and a multibeam echosounder that produces high-resolution images of the seabed, he said.
The air force spent nearly NT$10 million (US$325,935) commissioning TORI for the search, which started in the middle of last month and ends in the middle of December, another official said on condition of anonymity.
The black box was sent to the French manufacturer of the jet to retrieve its data in an attempt to clarify the cause of the crash, which usually takes about 60 days, the officials said.
The Legend also recovered parts of the jet, though there was no sign of the remains of the pilot Captain Ho Tzu-yu (何子雨), the officials said.
The aircraft, piloted by Ho, took off at about 6:09pm on Nov. 7, 2017, on a regular nighttime training exercise before losing contact with the control tower at 6:43pm about 90 nautical miles (166.7km) north-northeast of Keelung.
After failing to locate Ho’s remains in June last year, the military declared him killed in action.
Ho was posthumously promoted to the rank of major by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on June 5 last year.
Additional reporting by Lo Tien-ping and Lin Chia-nan
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS