The black box of the AH-64E Apache helicopter that crashed into a residential building in Taoyuan County on Friday morning has been retrieved and will be inspected to help determine the cause of the accident, the army said.
A crane was used to lift the damaged helicopter off the building and US technicians and Taiwanese personnel worked together to remove the black box.
The military said that an investigation team was set up on Friday afternoon and includes Boeing Co’s representative to Taiwan.
Photo: Chou Min-hung, Taipei Times
The helicopter, one of 18 AH-64E Apaches delivered between November last year and last month, was on a routine training flight when it crashed into the top of a three-story building in Longtan Township (龍潭), damaging four homes and slightly injuring the two pilots.
The plane’s pilot, Major Chen Lung-chien (陳龍謙), and copilot, Lieutenant Colonel Liu Ming-hui (劉銘輝), received CT scans that showed them to be in good physical shape, although the army started to provide psychological consultations for them that afternoon.
The helicopter that crashed had its transmission replaced on March 13 after it had arrived in Taiwan, due to concerns arising from a mechanical problem last year in the US involving the same model of aircraft.
The attack helicopter was flown from Tainan to the Longtan base on March 21 and put into use for flight training on April 17.
The army has grounded its new fleet of AH-64E Apaches pending completion of the crash investigation.
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