Strong underwater currents thwarted the efforts of searchers yesterday to retrieve the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder -- the so-called "black boxes" -- of the China Airlines plane that plunged into the sea with 225 people on board, officials said.
The attempt to retrieve the black boxes, which search crews determined on Wednesday were at a longitude of 119'40, north latitude 23'58, was disrupted by strong ocean currents, said Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Lin-shan (
Choppy seas also hampered efforts yesterday to salvage a huge piece of wreckage of the crashed plane, measuring 40m by 10m by 6m, located near the site of the black boxes, Lin said.
But research vessels from National Taiwan Ocean University and National Taiwan University, which are part of the search team, salvaged three pieces of wreckage yesterday, Lin said.
One of the pieces recovered measures 3m by 6m, with the other two measuring 7.5m by 7.5m, Lin added.
Eight fishing boats that jointed the search effort yesterday failed to recover any bodies or debris. The boats sailed south from Hsinchu, using the trawl nets to conduct retrieval efforts some 30m beneath the water's surface, Lin said.
So far, more than 95 bodies -- victims both from Taiwan and China -- have been recovered, leaving more than half of the plane's passengers still missing.
The recovery of the black boxes is expected to shed light on what caused the Boeing 747-200 to split into four pieces at an altitude of more than 9,144m last Saturday afternoon after taking off from the CKS Airport en route to Hong Kong.
Also commenting on the crash yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen also attended a ceremony in Taipei yesterday to show his respects for the victims of the crash.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and