The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said on Friday night that an investigation was being carried out into a reported incident of a whale-watching boat being hit by what was presumed to be a mortar hours earlier, off Taiwan’s east coast, near an area where a military drill was being conducted.
No casualties were reported on the Taiwanese-owned vessel, which was carrying 29 passengers and five crew members at the time, the tour operator surnamed Chien (簡) said.
During the whale-watching tour, a “black object” fell from the sky and hit the cockpit’s windshield, cracking it, and crashing into the stainless steel rail, making a dent, before falling into the sea, Chien said.
Photo courtesy of a tour operator surnamed Chien
“Everyone was terrified,” he said.
The whale-watching boat set sail at 2:30pm from Wushi Harbor (烏石港), Yilan County, and returned at 5pm, Chien said.
The MND in a statement said the tour boat was close to an area where the ministry’s Armaments Bureau was testing mortars from 2pm to 4:30pm that day.
However, the mortars used during the drill were not loaded with explosives, it said.
The bureau had issued a public notice on Wednesday about Friday’s drill and had given a warning that no vessels should enter a designated area during the time of the drill, it said.
The ministry said that on Friday, the bureau personnel had scanned the sea surface with radar to make sure the restricted area was clear before starting the mortar tests.
INVESTIGATION
The bureau would assemble an ad hoc team to fully investigate the reported incident of the tour boat being hit by a mortar, the ministry said.
According to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, a preliminary investigation has already been conducted, and it found that the whale-watching boat was not in the restricted area during the drill.
The follow-up probe would seek to determine whether the “black object” that hit the boat was mortar shrapnel, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
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