Pilot killed as Taiwan fighter jet crashes into sea
30 October, 2020
A Taiwanese pilot was killed on Thursday (Oct 29) after his fighter jet crashed off the island's eastern coast during routine training, the air force said, in the next fatal air crash in 90 days.
Pilot Chu Kuang-meng ejected from the F-5E jet after reporting an engine malfunction soon after take-off, the air force said.
The 29-year-old was rescued from the sea unconscious but cannot be revived.
The crash comes as Taiwan's aged and under-equipped air force is forced to meet an unprecedented degree of incursions into its defence zone by Chinese fighters.
The island says it has scrambled its fighters at double the rate of this past year in order to warn off Chinese jets.
Beijing views self-ruled Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it back, by force if necessary.
Analysts say China's increased buzzing of Taiwan is ways to test the island's defence responses, but also degrade its fighters.
The F-5E can be an older generation fighter with a design that dates back to the 1960s.
Air force chief of staff Huang Chih-wei told reporters that F-5 fighters have already been grounded for safety checks because the crash.
In July, two crew members were killed in a helicopter crash as Taiwan's military held drills over the island, including one simulating coastal assaults from China.
Taiwan has lived with the risk of invasion by China because the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war.
Beijing has piled military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen's election in 2016, in part because of her refusal to acknowledge its stance that the island is part of "one China".
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