The flight data recorder of an F-16V fighter jet that last week disappeared off eastern Taiwan has been located, the air force said today, adding that it would soon deploy a salvage team to try to retrieve it.
Although the location of the flight data recorder, also known as the black box, had been pinned down, the aircraft's sole pilot, air force Captain Hsin Po-yi (辛柏毅), was still missing, the Air Force Command Headquarters said in a statement.
Without providing details, the air force said that it had located the black box days after detecting some intermittent signals and would engage a team of professionals to retrieve it.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
The air force is looking for Singaporean or Japanese salvage companies to help with the retrieval mission, given the limited capabilities of Taiwanese entities to carry out deep-sea salvage operations, a military source said.
The single-seat fighter jet, tail number 6700, went missing on Tuesday last week, after Hsin took off from Hualien Air Base at 6:17pm on a nighttime training mission and soon reported that the aircraft was losing altitude, the air force said previously.
At 7:28pm, Hsin reported that he was about to eject from the aircraft, and eight seconds later, the jet's signal disappeared from radar, the air force said, adding that the aircraft's main onboard computer might have malfunctioned.
The air force subsequently set up an emergency response center and launched a search-and-rescue operation, but has not yet been able to find Hsin or the aircraft.
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