Taiwanese airforce fighter jet crashed during a combat training on Tuesday, with the pilot unaccounted for and an investigation underway.
The crash by an f-16V which is Taiwan’s most advanced fighter jet dealt a blow to the self-ruled island’s military which has hoped to use the warplanes to counter growing pressure from China’s people’s Liberation Army(PLA).
Taiwan on Tuesday suspended combat training for its f-16fleet after a recently upgraded model of the fighter jet crashed into the sea in the latest a series of accidents.
The defense ministry said the f-16V, the most advanced type in Taiwan’s fleet went missing from radar screens after taking off from the Chiayi air base in southern Taiwan for a training mission over a coastal firing range.
President Tsai Ing-wen issued instructions to spare no efforts in the search and rescue mission and to further clarify the cause of the accident.
The government’s Rescue Command Centre said witnesses had seen the aircraft crash into the sea and helicopters and ships were searching for the pilot.
Airforce Inspector-General Liu Hui-Chien said the aircraft had only recently been upgraded to the V version, with new weapons systems and avionics.
In 2020, an f-16 vanished shortly after taking off from the Hualien airbase on Taiwan’s east coast on a routine training mission.
In 2021, two f-15 E fighter jets that first entered service in Taiwan in the 1970s crashed into the sea off the southeast coast after they apparently collided mid-air during a training mission.
China’s air force consistently flies in the self-declared identification zone of the island which has strained the pilots who have to scramble the jets repeatedly to intercept them.
