Staff writer, with CNA
Pilot error has caused most military aircraft crashes in the past few years, Deputy Minister of National Defense Chang Che-ping (張哲平) said yesterday, adding that better training is needed to prevent such incidents.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Chang said that he agreed with data presented by lawmakers that pointed to pilot error rather than mechanical problems as the cause of most plane crashes.
“Mechanical malfunctions can occur, and the weather can change at any minute in the air, but it is up to the pilot to fly the aircraft back to safety,” he said.
Pilot error was the main factor in recent incidents, Chang said, in response to independent Legislator Freddy Lim’s (林昶佐) presentation of an investigation’s findings, which showed that pilot error was the cause of 38 of 52 crashes of F-5 fighters since they entered service in 1975.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said that Taiwan Transportation Safety Board data showed that human error was the main factor in 65 percent of all plane crashes in Taiwan.
Cultural issues in the military might have contributed to the high incidence of pilot error and death in military aircraft crashes, Chang said.
For example, a lower-ranking pilot might hesitate to point out a problem to their superior during a flight, due to the hierarchy system at the Air Force Academy, he said.
Many pilots might also wait until the last possible moment to eject during an emergency, as they might believe they should go down with their aircraft, he added.
In an effort to address some of these issues, the military is holding training sessions at air bases nationwide, he said.
Meanwhile, the search continues for Captain Pan Ying-chun (潘穎諄), who went missing after a mid-air collision between two F-5E jets on Monday last week, Chang said.
Since the crash, which killed Lieutenant Lo Shang-hua (羅尚樺), the pilot of the other plane, the 300-person search-and-rescue team has found some personnel equipment and aircraft debris, but has not found Pan, he said.
Pan is believed to have ejected from his jet, as did Lo, who was found at sea on the day of the crash and pronounced dead after he was taken to a hospital.
The air force grounded its fleet of 43 F-5s after the incident, pending safety inspections, but yesterday said that they would resume operations of its F-5F, a twin seat variant of the F-5E, next month.
The F-5Fs are usually deployed as second line fighters and trainer jets.
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