Image: Forbes.com Berita 24 English -According to the defense ministry, a Taiwanese jet trainer crashed on Tuesday, killing the pilot , mark...
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| Image: Forbes.com |
The AT-3 jet crashed on a training trip from the Gangshan air base in Kaohsiung, according to the ministry, and the pilot's body had already been discovered.
The AT-3 is a weapon-carrying advanced trainer that was designed in the United States and first flew in 1980.
According to her office, President Tsai Ing-wen is "deeply pained" by the loss and has directed the Defense Ministry to examine what happened.
A Mirage 2000 fighter jet fell into the water off the southeast shore of the island in March, the island's second combat aircraft loss in three months. The pilot was found alive and well.
After a freshly modified model of the fighter jet crashed into the sea, killing the pilot, the Air Force ceased combat training for its F-16 fleet in January.
Last year, two F-5E fighters, which first saw duty in Taiwan in the 1970s, collided in mid-air during a training exercise and crashed into the sea.
An F-16 vanished in late 2020 after taking off on a normal training mission from the Hualien air base on Taiwan's east coast.
While Taiwan's air force is well-trained, it has been stretched in recent years as it has often scrambled to see off Chinese military aircraft, despite the fact that the mishaps have not been linked to these intercept efforts.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own, has been deploying planes into Taiwan's air defense zone on a regular basis, particularly over the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands but also into the airspace between Taiwan and the Philippines.
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