Wed, Jul 26, 2000 page3

• MND apologizes over tragedy at Pachang Creek

  MEA CULPA A spokesman for the ministry said the inept handling of efforts to rescue four river workers had taught the defense ministry a `valuable lesson'

  • By Brian Hsu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday that there were faults with the air force's Chiayi-based "Seagull" search and rescue unit, saying the group lacked "initiative" in the effort to rescue four workers who were swept away by the Pachang Creek (八掌溪) on Saturday.

  "They are at fault for their lack of a sense of crisis management and failing to take the initiative to coordinate with other governmental departments concerned in the handling of the emergency," said Major General Kung Fan-ding (孔繁定), MND spokesman.

  "But they were also justified in applying standard operation procedure to the salvage requests."

  Kung said the people in the ministry felt sorrow for the drowning of the four workers, adding that the incident had taught the MND a "valuable lesson."

  "We will seek to improve our rescue and search forces," he said.

  Kung made the remarks yesterday at a regularly scheduled press conference. The ministry spokesman also expressed apologies for the mishap on the behalf of Wu Shih-wen (伍世文), Minister of Defense, and Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明), Chief of the General Staff.

  Major General Chen Shih-yu (程士瑜), a ministry assistant deputy, vowed that the military would not allow similar incidents to happen again.

  "The government leadership has decided to upgrade the rescue and search center of the armed forces to a cabinet-level agency to coordinate and command" similar government units, Chen said.

  "With the integration of all rescue and search units into one, we can assure the public that the fatal errors we saw in the Chiayi incident will not happen again," he said.

  Meanwhile, at the same press conference, an air force representative said that although the Seagull search and rescue unit has four S-70C-6 helicopters -- all capable of flying at night and in all types of weather -- the four would not have necessarily been able to pluck any of the workers from the raging Pachang Creek.

  The Seagull unit operates a fleet of 14 US-made S-70Cs, including 10 older-version S-70C-1s and four newer-type S-70C-6s, which were bought over the past two years.

  Two of the S-70C-6s were converted into transport helicopters assigned specifically to the president and vice president -- a move that has been criticized by lawmakers as wasteful.

  Erich Shih (施孝瑋), an editor with Defense International magazine, told the Taipei Times that the S-70C-6 does not have "look-down" capability, which would make it unsuitable for the type of rescue mission the Pachang Creek incident required.
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