The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that it opposes an amendment to the Transportation Occurrence Investigation Act (運輸事故調查法) that would authorize the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board (TTSB) to investigate military aircraft crashes.
Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) and the New Power Party caucus proposed the amendment due to a series of military aircraft crashes over the past few years.
One of the most catastrophic incidents was when a UH-60 Black Hawk crashed in January 2020, killing then-chief of the general staff Shen I-ming (沈一鳴) and seven other senior military officials.
Photo: Lin Hsiao-yun, Taipei Times
The amendment, which would enable impartial third parties such as TTSB to help investigate military aircraft crashes, was proposed because the public does not want similar incidents to reoccur, Hung told lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee.
Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) last year told lawmakers that he agreed with the proposal to include TTBS in the investigation of incidents involving military aircraft, said Hung, who presided over the meeting.
The NPP caucus said that the ministry has neither the experts nor the resources to investigate military aircraft crashes.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲), who supports the amendment, said that military aircraft crashes continue to happen because the military conducts the investigations itself, serving as the player and the referee.
Lin said that he found the investigation report of the January 2020 crash unconvincing, as it failed to tackle core issues.
Air force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Huang Chih-wei (黃志偉) said that the ministry’s position is that the act should be remain unchanged.
“Military aircraft are different from commercial airplanes because military flights are dispatched for war preparations and involve many national security issues, including flight routes, weapons, training and chain of command,” Huang said.
The Taiwanese military is no different from its counterparts in the US, UK and Japan, who also investigate military aircraft crashes by themselves, he added.
Norway and Brazil are the only two countries in the world that outsource the investigation of incidents involving military aircraft to third parties, he added.
“We have already included aviation occurrence investigators in our investigation of military plane crashes. In the draft military aviation act, we will explicitly state the inclusion of impartial third parties to increase the validity of our investigations,” Huang said.
“However, as the investigations will involve handling of sensitive security information, only limited details can be disclosed to the public,” he added.
DPP Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪) highlighted that the government has to sign non-disclosure agreements for the purchase of military aircraft, and relevant affairs are still handled by the ministry.
Hung announced that unresolved issues with four key articles involved in the amendment would all be negotiated between different legislative caucuses.
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