The plane is missing! The Taiwan military hastily dispatched transport planes, helicopters and warships to search and rescue. The latest news shows that the Taiwan military has received a signal from the flight recorder of the fighter plane and commissioned a company with experience in salvaging the fighter plane to salvage it, but it has not yet discovered it. Whether it was the plane crash or there is another hidden story, there are many speculations in the market. At the same time, conspiracy theories have also appeared.The plane is missing! The Taiwan military hastily dispatched transport planes, helicopters and warships to search and rescue. The latest news shows that the Taiwan military has received a signal from the flight recorder of the fighter plane and commissioned a company with experience in salvaging the fighter plane to salvage it, but it has not yet discovered it. Whether it was the plane crash or there is another hidden story, there are many speculations in the market. At the same time, conspiracy theories have also appeared.
F-16 pilot missing
According to Taiwan military news, the missing fighter model was a single-seat F-16A with a fuselage number 6672. It was driven by Jiang Zhengzhi, captain of the 26th combat team of the 5th Tactical Mixed Wing of the Taiwan Air Force, and took off from Hualien Base at 6:05 pm. Together with the other 2 F16s for night navigation training. But the radar spot of Jiang Zhengzhi's plane disappeared over the northeast surface of the airport at 6:07. After learning that Jiang Zhengzhi's landline plane was missing, the two F-16s trained together immediately joined the search and rescue.
According to Major General Xie Risheng, the captain of the 5th Wing of the Taiwan Air Force, it was raining lightly, and some pilots reported a small amount of cloud over 2,000 feet. After the plane took off, the No. 2 plane piloted by Jiang Zhengzhi was not seen on the radar. It is known that the height of the last light spot disappeared is about 6000 feet or more. The other three pilots in the air did not hear any radio calls, and the radar showed no indication.
The missing F-16A has flown 2861 hours. After completing the routine inspection on September 19, it has so far made 52 attendances and has flown nearly 52 hours. According to reports, the aircraft had an abnormal generator accident on February 8, 2006, when it successfully landed at Taichung Qingquangang Airport.
The missing pilot Jiang Zhengzhi graduated from the Taiwan Air Force Official School in 1999. He has 2230 hours of flying experience. He lives in Taipei City. He has a wife and mother at home with no children. A retired air force general of the Taiwan military believes that Jiang Zhengzhi has extensive flight experience and speculates that the accident may be caused by a mechanical failure.
Two serious accidents in less than a month
After the incident, Taiwan’s Black Hawk search and rescue aircraft and Navy anti-submarine aircraft immediately launched an emergency search overnight. Tsai Ing-wen said that not giving up any opportunities, full rescue is the highest priority; she also revealed that the Air Force has grounded the F-16 for inspection, and she requested a thorough investigation of the cause of the accident.
The latest news shows that on the 19th, Taiwan’s "Minister of Defense" Yan Defa confirmed that he had received a signal from the flight recorder 9 miles from the shore on Wednesday (18th) and has now commissioned a company with experience in salvaging the wrecked phantom fighter.
This is the second serious accident of the Taiwan Air Force in less than a month. On October 29, an F-5E fighter jet fell into the waters north of the base within two minutes of takeoff while performing a mission in Taitung. The pilot was seriously injured when he parachuted to escape for the first time, and died in the hospital. Ironically, the Taiwan Air Force just held a farewell ceremony for F-5E pilots at the Taitung Zhihang Base on the morning of the 17th, and Jiang Zhengzhi lost contact in the evening.
Jiang Zhengzhi
Taiwan purchased 150 F-16 fighters from the United States in 1992. The first batch of them arrived in Taiwan in 1997. They have served in the Taiwan Air Force for more than 20 years. So far, there have been 7 F-16 crashes.
There are many mysteries and related speculations
The disappearance of the plane caused constant speculation. Earlier reports stated that radar data showed that the fighter jet plunged 7,000 feet within 20 seconds. Taiwan’s Air Force Commander General Xiong Houji stated at the press conference that the possibility of mechanical failure is low and cannot be ruled out. It's lost in space. The search and rescue party also said that unidentified oil stains were found on the sea surface in the search area, but whether it is related to the fighter aircraft involved needs to be reconfirmed.
Some members of the Taiwan military have also thrown the "pot" to the mainland, saying that "the People's Liberation Army has repeatedly visited Taiwan's airspace over the past few days." Therefore, "it cannot be ruled out that this action will increase the burden on the Taiwan Air Force and have a series of effects." If the pilot is tired, it is easy to get lost in space.
The so-called space loss refers to the illusion that the pilot feels that the state of the aircraft does not match the actual state, thus losing the ability to judge.
Some netizens asked, Taiwan's F-16 fighter jet suddenly lost contact, was it a night flight crash or surrender to the mainland? Some forums even posted that the plane had landed at the Xiamen military airport and took refuge in the mainland. The above-mentioned online transmission has not been confirmed, nor has it been refuted
However, the impact caused by the loss of Taiwan’s F16A fighters continues. At present, Taiwan’s military has completely grounded the F16 fighters for inspection, and related tasks are performed by the older Jingguo fighters. The PLA military aircraft continued to fly close to Taiwan and entered the southwest airspace of Taiwan at 3 degrees in the morning of the 18th. Statistics show that PLA military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace for 15 days this month, and entered the southwestern airspace of Taiwan for 5 consecutive days since last Saturday.
