Taiwan media: The Taiwan military has found the black box of the wrecked F-16V fighter and will send it to a professional unit to identify the cause of the accident

Source: Global Times

【Global Times Comprehensive Report】The Taiwan military F-16V fighter plane crashed in chiayi off the coast on the 11th, and after DNA identification of human tissue found at the crash site, it was confirmed that the pilot Chen Yi was dead. The Chiayi District Prosecutor's Office issued a death certificate on the 17th, identifying Chen Yi as an accidental death, and the cause of death was the death of multiple blunt trauma and traumatic shock throughout the body during the crash.

According to Taiwan's "Lianhe Pao" reported on the 17th, after the accident, the Taiwan Air Force ordered all F-16V fleets to be grounded for inspection and suspend the operation of combat training tasks. It is reported that the fleet is expected to fully resume flights on the 20th of this month. However, according to Taiwan's "Central News Agency", some military officials said on the 16th that the inspection is still continuing, and under the condition of taking safety as the highest priority, chiayi and Hualien bases are expected to fully resume flights as soon as 27.

The Taiwan military salvaged the wreckage of the crashed plane and the remains of the pilot. Picture from Taiwan's "China Times News Network"

An F-16V single-seat fighter plane at Taiwan Air Force Chiayi Base crashed into the sea on the afternoon of 11 July when pilot Captain Chen Yi was piloting a plane on a routine training mission. After several days of search and rescue, the military found that The physiological tissue suspected of Chen Yi was genetically compared to determine his death. The salvage of the Taiwan Air Force is still continuing, and large machinery appeared in the wrecked sea area on the 17th. Taiwan's "Air Force Command" announced in the evening that the black box of the crash had been found and would be sent to a professional unit to identify the cause of the accident.

As for the cause of the crash, Taiwan's United News Network received a revelation on the 17th that after the training of the fighter plane piloted by Chen Yi on the day before the incident (that is, on the 10th), the pilot had found that a certain light number on the dashboard of the cabin showed that there was a toxic gas leak in the cabin, but it had not been reported. The Taiwan Air Force said that the "emergency power plane" light number lit up was confirmed to be "mistaken flashing." The Chiayi District Prosecutor's Office said that on the 17th, a small piece of human pelvis, skull and scalp and other physiological organ tissues were newly recovered and will be sent to the Forensic Research Institute for identification. From the analysis of the human tissues currently examined, the pilot died of traumatic shock during the crash of the fighter, which was an accidental death.

Tan Chuanyi, a researcher at Taiwan's International Strategic Society, said that the existing F-16V, "Jingguo" and "Mirage" fighters in the Taiwan Air Force have a proper rate of less than 75 percent, and the Mirage is the lowest, only about 64 percent. In the future, even if the F-35 is bought, it may not be able to improve the control of air supremacy, because the F-35's logistics support is more complex and difficult, and its difficulty may be 3 times that of the F-16V. He mentioned that the number of flight hours that pilots fly per year, Taiwan averages 150 hours, but the mainland air force is as high as 200 hours. Tan Chuanyi said that Taiwan has a serious decline in birthrates, the Air Force has difficulties in recruiting personnel, and the "cockpit ratio" (the ratio of aircraft cockpits to pilots) has been low for a long time; if we really want to imitate the US militia organization, now the Taiwan Air Force will have to build a roster of pilots and grasp the existing number of qualified pilots. (Zhang Ruo)