A foreign national who was arrested on Saturday after trying to climb on a China Airlines (CAL) plane preparing to take off at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport continued to remain silent while being questioned by prosecutors yesterday.
The man was previously reported to be from Belarus, but prosecutors yesterday said they have yet to ascertain his nationality.
After spending the night at the airport’s immigration detention center, the suspect was sent to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office on Sunday morning, and charged with trespassing in the airport’s restricted area, in violation of the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法).
Photo: CNA
The suspect has not spoken a word since his arrest at around 2pm on Saturday, despite immigration officers trying to communicate with him in different languages.
He did not have any form of identification on him when he was arrested, but police found a notebook written in Russian and a Bible in the two backpacks he had with him when he was arrested.
When approached by a Russian interpreter, the suspect continued to remain silent. Immigration officers have found no records of the man entering Taiwan, and they believe he may have been smuggled in.
If that is the case, he could face a maximum three-year prison term or a NT$90,000 fine for violating the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法), police said.
The dramatic incident was first noticed by a pilot of an Asiana Airlines flight that was waiting behind CAL flight CI028 to Palau, as the latter was taxiing toward the runway for takeoff, according to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Co (TIAC).
The man was spotted darting out from bushes on airport grounds and then trying to climb onto the landing gear of the Boeing 737-800 jet at 1:55pm on Saturday, but he was later overpowered by airport security. The CAL flight, originally scheduled to depart at 1:35pm, was delayed.
It was the first time such an intrusion has taken place at Taiwan’s largest airport.
There was speculation that the man could have gotten into the area from the construction site of Terminal 3, but local authorities have yet to reach any conclusions about how the incident happened.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS