Taiwan still looking for 2 air force officers after jet crash in Taiwan Straits

The search was continuing Thursday for two air force officers missing after their F-5F training jet reportedly crashed into the Taiwan Straits near Penghu the day before.Lt. Col. Chang Liang-yuan, 42, and Lt. Huang Ting-yu, 25, had been on a routine training mission from Chingchuankang Air Force Base near Taichung to practice air-to-ground shooting, the air force said.More than 24 hours after the incident, rescue teams in the area had found 30 pieces of the missing jet as well as unopened life jackets, reports said. Navy and coast guard vessels searching the surroundings of Tsaoyu Island had not made any major finds Thursday, an air force spokesman said.Wednesday’s incident was the latest in a long row with the 35-year-old aircraft type, reports said. Taiwan’s air force has been losing F-5F jets at a rate of about one a year since it first bought them from the United States. Of the original 66 purchased, only 33 were still in service, according to media reports.All F-5F planes were grounded while investigations into the cause of the disappearance continued, the air force said, adding that recent maintenance records of the aircraft involved did not show any problems.President Ma Ying-jeou added his voice to the debate Thursday, demanding the Ministry of National Defense explain why there had been four or five accidents in the army, air force and navy since he took office in May last year. The military should say whether technical glitches or wrong handling by military personnel had been behind the incidents, Ma said.He called on the armed forces to strengthen their training and to be less reluctant about giving up overused equipment.Chang was an experienced officer with more than 3,000 hours of flying on his record. Huang had 294 hours of flying behind him, and was due to finish his training program this week, reports said.Their jet was originally based at Chihhang Air Force Base near Taitung, but took off from Taichung Wednesday because of works at its home site.

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