Taipei:
Two Taiwanese fighter jets crashed on Monday in the third such incident in the previous half year, at a time when the Beijing-claimed island’s armed forced are beneath rising stress to intercept Chinese aircraft on an practically everyday basis.
While Taiwan’s air force is nicely educated and nicely equipped, largely with US-created gear, it is dwarfed by China’s. Beijing views the democratic island as its personal territory and has never ever renounced the use of force to bring it beneath Chinese manage.
Taiwan’s National Rescue Command Centre stated two air force F-5E fighters, each and every with one pilot aboard, crashed into the sea off the island’s southeastern coast right after they apparently collided in mid-air for the duration of a instruction mission.
An air force helicopter, coast guard and other rescue ships have been scrambled to look for the pilots, it added.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry stated it was working on a statement, and supplied no other quick comment. The official Central News Agency stated the air force had now grounded the F-5 fleet that operates from the Chihhang air base, exactly where the aircraft are based.
The U.S.-constructed F-5 fighters very first entered service in Taiwan in the late 1970s and have been largely been retired from front-line activities, although some are nevertheless utilised for instruction and as a back-up for the major fleet.
Another F-5 crashed in October, killing the pilot. The following month a significantly more contemporary F-16 crashed off Taiwan’s east coast, whose pilot also died.
In January of final year, Taiwan’s best military official was amongst eight persons killed right after a helicopter carrying them to take a look at soldiers crashed in a mountainous location close to the capital Taipei.
The incidents have raised concern about each instruction and upkeep, but also the stress the air force is beneath to respond to repeated Chinese flights close to the island.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry has warned Chinese aircraft, like drones, are flying repeatedly in Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, looking for to put on out Taiwan’s air force.