The family of a fisherman killed by a navy missile reportedly launched by mistake is to received NT$34.84 million (US$1.09 million) in compensation, the Ministry of Justice said.
Huang Wen-chung (黃文忠), captain of the fishing vessel Hsiang Li Sheng, was killed when a Hsiung Feng III missile srtuck his boat. His son and two other crew members, one from Vietnam and the other from the Philippines, sustained minor injuries in the incident.
It is the highest amount of compensation it has paid out so far this year, the ministry said on Wednesday.
Huang’s family demanded compensation to cover funeral expenses, a consolation fee, damage to the ship and payment for lost working days.
“It is good to have the matter resolved and I hope my family’s life can return to normal quickly,” said Huang’s eldest son, Huang Ming-hua (黃明華).
“How can we measure the worth of a life?” Huang Wen-fa (黃文發), the younger brother of the captain, asked, adding that his nephew, Huang Ming-hua, would likely build a new ship and continue fishing.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office has charged three naval officers involved in the incident with negligence, citing their failure to follow standard operating procedures, despite their training in operating missile systems.
The locally developed Hsiung Feng III missile was launched from a 500-tonne Chinchiang class corvette docked at a naval base in Kaohsiung at 8:12am on July 1 during what was supposed to be a simulated test of the navy’s missile system.
The petty officer who fired the missile was performing the test without supervision and mistakenly launched the missile, the Ministry of National Defense said.
He selected the wrong mode for the simulation, setting it to combat mode instead of training mode, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The missile traveled northwest and ripped through the fishing boat 40 nautical miles (74km) away in waters near Penghu.
The compensation was paid at the request of the Huang family and likely does not directly cover the foreign crew members injured in the incident. It is not known how much, if any, the two crew members received in damages.
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