Senior Air Force officers yesterday revealed a link between highly technical air combat maneuvers and last week's crash of a Mirage jet fighter into seas off Hualien, eastern Taiwan.
"Can we [the Air Force] reduce air accident rates in the service? Yes we can, as soon as we stop asking fighter pilots to do extreme combat training," said Major General Lee Kui-fa (
"If we do so, we believe the flight safety record of the Air Force could attain the standard of civil aviation," Lee said.
He made the remarks on a state-run television program on flight safety problems, after last Tuesday's crash of a single-seat Mirage off Hualien.
"We are now in a dilemma. We want to improve flight safety records in the service, but we also want to enhance the air combat capability of pilots through highly demanding training," Lee said.
"If we let our pilots go through difficult flight training, air accidents of some sorts are inevit-able," he said. "This is the most difficult task the Air Force is now faced with."
Lee suggested the Mirage crash -- the second in two months -- might have resulted from efforts by the pilot, Major Chiang Ching-liang, to attempt some difficult maneuvring techniques in an air combat drill with two other Mirages.
Investigations by the Air Force indicated the pilot might have sunk along with his plane into deep seas off Hualien, since there was no sign Chiang parachuted before the crash.
Chiang might have passed out as he tried to do a big G-force move with the plane, military analysts said. The ground radar control center did not get any radio signal from Chiang after it lost radar contact.
Chiang was then undergoing a "beyond visual range" wargame combat maneuver with two other planes. Chiang's plane was an "intruder" and the other two were "interceptors."
Chiang went missing after the three planes made their first pass, flying by each other to get into the best attack position from behind, analysts said.
Chiang might not have been properly prepared before he made a big G-force move, a 180-degree turn, in an attempt to head back toward the other two planes before they had a chance to do the same to him.
Besides problems relating to pilots and their training, the Air Force also admitted a lack of sufficient and skilled personnel for the maintenance and repair of advanced aircraft like Mirages, endangering flight safety.
"When the supply of Air Force draftees was reduced from three years to two, the supply of maintenance and repair personnel became a problem. To train a technician for combat aircraft usually requires over one and a half years," said Colonel Yang Chi-yao, director of the military equipment department of the Air Force General Headquarters.
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