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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Trainer jets grounded after crash
AT-3 trainer jet No. 0852, which crashed in Kaohsiung yesterday killing its pilot, Second Lieutenant Hsu Ta-chun, is pictured on a runway in an undated photograph. Photo courtesy of a reader
WHAT HAPPENED? The military has ordered 66 AIDC-made Advanced Jet Trainers and is in the process of replacing AT-3 trainer jets and F-5E/F lead-in trainers with those
/ Staff writer, with CNA
The Air Force Academy yesterday suspended all flight training for its cadets and grounded all of its AT-3 trainer jets after an AT-3 used by the academy crashed in Kaohsiung during a training session earlier in the day, killing its pilot in the air force’s second fatal incident this year.
The air force is conducting a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the incident that killed Second Lieutenant Hsu Ta-chun （徐大鈞）, Air Force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Huang Chih-wei （黃志偉） told a news briefing.
No signs of mechanical failure have been detected in the investigation, and the weather conditions were good with high visibility, Huang said.
President Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） is “deeply saddened” by the loss and has instructed the Ministry of National Defense to investigate the incident, the Presidential Office said in a statement.
While on a solo training mission, Hsu’s trainer disappeared from radar at 8:06am while in airspace about 5 nautical miles （9.3km） northeast of the Air Force Academy in the city’s Gangshan District （岡山）, Huang said.
Responding to reports of an unidentified plane crash, the district’s fire department later found the debris of the crashed AT-3 and the dead body of the 23-year-old Hsu in a field near Tiancuo 1st Road.
The plane did not hit any structures or people on the ground.
A New Taipei City native, Hsu was a graduate of last year’s Air Force Academy class. He had logged just over 116 flying hours, 24 of them in AT-3s.
The crashed AT-3 had 6,068 flying hours and last cleared a major safety inspection on Feb. 17, the air force said.
It was only the second time Hsu was flying solo, Huang said.
Just before the crash, a flight instructor had accompanied Hsu in the same two-seater AT-3 for a training session of three take-offs and landings before being let off at the academy to allow Hsu to fly solo, Huang said.
The trainers, built domestically by Aerospace Industrial Development Corp （AIDC, 漢翔航空工業） in the 1980s, have been involved in 15 crashes, resulting in the deaths of 10 pilots.
The military has ordered 66 new AIDC-made Advanced Jet Trainers and is in the process of replacing AT-3 trainer aircraft and F-5E/F lead-in trainers with the new aircraft.
Retired air force lieutenant general Chang Yen-ting （張延廷） speculated that a relatively inexperienced pilot, an aging aircraft and unstable atmospheric conditions might have led to the crash.
Chang, a former Air Force Academy superintendent, said that Hsu did not have enough experience in handling emergencies after logging only 24 hours in the aircraft.
Hsu had been flying at about 500m above sea level — about the height of Taipei 101 — meaning that he had very little time to respond if there was an emergency, Chang said.
Also, the AT-3s have been in service for nearly four decades, making them more likely to experience mechanical malfunction due to the lack of new spare parts, he said.
The overall weather conditions during the ongoing rainy season is also unfavorable to pilots, with the unstable atmosphere due to moisture posing a higher risk for aircraft, even when flying with high visibility, Chang added.
Chang called on the air force to come up with a strategy to recruit more cadets due to the nation’s dwindling birthrate and the higher risk of serving as a military pilot.
He also urged the air force to consider raising the salary of flight instructors so that more of them would continue to serve in the military instead of moving to civilian aviation companies, which offer higher pay.
The crash was the third this year, and the second that resulted in a fatality.
In March, a Mirage 2000 fighter jet crashed into the sea off the southeast coast, the second combat aircraft lost in three months. The pilot was rescued alive.
In January, the air force suspended combat training for its F-16 fleet after a recently upgraded model of the fighter jet crashed into the sea, killing the pilot.
Additional reporting by Reuters
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
