The military yesterday said it has located the flight data recorder, or black box, of an F-16V jet that disappeared off eastern Taiwan earlier this month, and it would soon deploy a salvage team to try to retrieve it.
Air Force Command Headquarters said that while it had pinned down the location of the black box, it was still searching for the aircraft’s sole pilot, air force Captain Hsin Po-yi (辛柏毅).
Without providing details, the air force said it had located the black box days after detecting some intermittent signals and would now engage a team of professionals to retrieve it.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration via CNA
The air force is seeking 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 No. 6700, went missing on Tuesday last week.
Hsin took off from Hualien Air Base at 6:17pm on a nighttime training mission, and soon after, he reported that the aircraft was losing altitude, the air force said.
At 7:28pm, Hsin said 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 there might have been a malfunction of the aircraft’s main onboard computer.
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 nor the aircraft.
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