The air force has grounded all training jets after an aircraft crashed yesterday due to “dual engine failure,” with the pilot ejecting safely.
The domestically built AT-5 Yung Ying (勇鷹, “Brave Eagle”) advanced jet trainer went down at 8:40am during a training exercise after taking off from Chihhang Air Base in southern Taitung County, the air force said in a statement.
The sole occupant of the two-seater jet trainer, air force Major-in-Training Lin Wei (林瑋), ejected and parachuted to safety after both aircraft’s engines failed, it said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The 34-year-old Lin displayed mild signs of hypothermia following his rescue and was under observation at Mackay Memorial Hospital’s Taitung branch, doctors said.
Lin’s jet had recorded 183 hours of flight time prior to yesterday, the air force said.
Lin graduated from the Air Force Academy and had clocked a total flight time of 1,184 hours before the crash.
The air force said the jet had “dual engine failure,” but a special task force would investigate “to clarify the cause and ensure training safety.”
Yesterday’s incident was the first time a Brave Eagle had an accident since the air force began receiving the planes from Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空) in 2021 to replace its aging AT-3 jet trainers.
AIDC has delivered 41 out of 66 Brave Eagles ordered by the air force. The remaining aircraft are scheduled to be delivered by the end of next year.
Yesterday’s crash could be a setback for air force plans to replace the aging AT-3 fleet before the end of next year, sources said.
The armed forces are mostly equipped by the US, but the government has made the development of an advanced homegrown defence industry a priority, especially as China steps up military modernization efforts and drills near Taiwan.
In February 2017, the Ministry of National Defense initiated the development of the Advanced Trainer Jet program. The aircraft received the name “Brave Eagle” in September 2019 when the first prototype rolled off the assembly line.
The first AT-5 flight was in June 2020 and AIDC delivered the first sample of the mass-production model in November 2021.
The AT-5 is Taiwan’s first domestically made since the F-CK-1 Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighter, or IDF, rolled out more than three decades ago. The two jets look similar and have similar capabilities.
Despite AT-5’s external resemblance to the F-CK-1 air superiority fighter — a deliberate design choice to replicate the latter’s drag and angle of attack — 80 percent of the former’s components are different.
Significantly, the AT-5 uses a pair of AIDC/ITEC F124-200TW engines which feature lightweight composite materials, with 55 percent of parts sourced in Taiwan.
The AT-5 wings were modified to enable low-speed landing and stability at low airspeeds, desirable attributes for training.
The plane is designed to have a support function in times of war. It can be equipped with weapons, but that function remains in the testing phase.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS