The air force’s Air Rescue Group and the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) are holding joint birthday celebrations in Taipei this week, symbolizing their close relationship.
A series of activities and events began yesterday at the bureau’s Taipei headquarters to mark the Air Rescue Group’s 61st birthday and the bureau’s 74th birthday.
Air Rescue Group head Colonel Chen Mei-huang said he was pleased to join the celebrations at the weather bureau.
“Weather information provided by the bureau is important for pilots to decide whether to carry out flight missions,” he said.
Chen, a pilot himself, made the remarks next to an exhibition showcasing the group’s equipment and clothing, as well as videos to introduce its work to visitors.
“The rescue group and the weather bureau maintain a close relationship,” CWB Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn (辛在勤) said.
The cooperation includes the group’s delivery of food and other supplies to the bureau’s Yushan Weather Station, located 3,850m above sea level.
To strengthen cooperation, the group held a training session at its base in Chiayi last week, which was attended by personnel from some of the weather stations to learn first aid treatment, Chen said.
As some weather stations are located in rural areas, far from hospitals and other medical institutions, knowledge of first aid can help personnel assigned to those stations care for themselves in the event of an emergency, he said.
The exchanges will continue throughout the year, he said.
Established in 1954, the Air Rescue Group is responsible for conducting rescue missions in the mountains and at sea. It has two types of rescue aircraft in its fleet: the S-70C and the EC225.
The birthday activities and events, which run through Sunday, are open to the public.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS