military pilot he died when an AT-3 trainer aircraft of the Taiwan Air Force crashed today. while on a training flight in Kaohsiung, in the south of the island, official sources reported. The signal from the AT-3, flown by Lieutenant Hsu Ta-Chun in solo training exercises, disappeared from radar at 08:08 local time (GMT) while in the area airspace. According to Taiwanese agency CNA, five minutes after takeoff from an unspecified location in Gangshan city. Responding to reports of an unidentified plane crash, the district fire department later found the wreckage of the crashed AT-3 and the body of 23-year-old Hsu.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has ordered the Ministry of Defense to conduct a full investigation into the incident. A total of 63 Taiwan Air Force trainer jets built in the country by the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation in the 1980s were involved in 15 accidents that killed ten pilots. According to the CNA, seven plane and helicopter crashes have occurred since 2020, resulting in the death of thirteen soldiers of the island’s air force. Last March, an Air Force Mirage-2000 fighter jet crashed on the southeast coast of the island, two months after an Air Force F-16V also crashed during routine training.
This event happens A day after the Chinese Air Force conducted its biggest raid since January In the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), condemnation was made in a statement from the island’s Ministry of Defense. According to the military ministry, 30 aircraft, including 22 warplanes and numerous reconnaissance aircraft, participated in the raids, while Russian-made Su-35s made their first flights in the region. This event coincides with US Senator Tammy Duckworth’s three-day visit to the island, which escalated tensions between China and Taiwan. China has viewed Taiwan as a rogue province since the retreat of Kuomintang nationalists in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists.
Source: Informacion
