Taiwan grounds all Mirage jets after pilot goes missing during exercise
Air force searches for officer after his plane disappears from the radar
Taiwan’s air force said on Wednesday it has grounded all its Mirage jets after a pilot went missing during a training exercise.
The single-seat Mirage-2000 flown by Captain Ho Tzu-yu disappeared from the radar 34 minutes after take-off on Tuesday evening off the northeast coast of the island, according to the air force.
Authorities dispatched 17 military planes as well as 10 naval and coastguard vessels to conduct a search but there had been no sighting of the missing plane, it said.
“We hope Ho can be safely rescued soon,” said Lieutenant General Chang Che-ping, the air force’s deputy chief.
All Mirage jets had been grounded since the incident, Chang said.
Chang described Ho as an excellent pilot and said there was no sign of any problems or irregularities after he took off from a base near the northwestern city of Hsinchu.