President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday asked the Ministry of National Defense to swiftly investigate the cause of an F-16V jet crash on Tuesday and to provide full assistance to the family of the pilot, air force Captain Chen Yi (陳奕), who is believed dead.
Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) quoted Tsai as issuing the directive, after Chiayi County Chief Prosecutor Tsai Ying-chun (蔡英俊) late on Friday said that human remains retrieved from the crash site the previous day are from the missing pilot.
A comparison of recovered tissue to a DNA sample taken from Chen’s mother confirmed that it was that of the pilot, Tsai Ying-chun said.
Photo: CNA
Chen’s family yesterday performed a “soul summoning” (招魂儀式), a traditional Taiwanese folk ritual to call for the deceased soul to return home, near the site of the crash.
Heavy-duty equipment and machinery, including excavators and sand dredgers, were yesterday deployed to remove mud and sand from the seafloor around the crash site with the hope of finding more of Chen’s remains, the military said.
Wang Tzu-li (王自立), an air force spokesperson, said that although the location of the crash site has been determined, the military believes the cockpit could be buried deep in the soft sand seafloor.
The F-16V jet piloted by Chen, with the serial No. 6650, disappeared from radar screens at 3:23pm on Tuesday, about 30 minutes after it took off from Chiayi Air Base on a routine training mission with another aircraft.
The jet had just completed a series of simulated missile launches, when it abruptly nosedived into the ocean, according to accounts given by the other jet pilot, a ground controller and eyewitness on the Chiayi coast.
Late on Thursday, search and rescue teams said that they had retrieved what were believed to be body parts and a badly damaged aviator suit worn by the 28-year-old pilot at about 4pm near where eyewitnesses reported seeing the plane crash.
The discovery was made during search and rescue efforts by 348 personnel and after deploying a ship, nine boats and conducting 28 air sorties.
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