Two Taiwan air force jets collided mid-air during a routine training flight in southern Taiwan on Tuesday, killing one pilot, the air force said. The accident occurred shortly after the AT-3 training jet, code number 0815, of the air force aerobatic team “Thunder Tigers,” took off from Gangshan air force base in Kaohsiung with another AT-3 training jet from the same team at 11:10am, an air force officer said. “Code 0815 crashed in a banana farm in Chikuan and the pilot was hospitalised,” said Wang Chou-hsuan, political warfare director of the air force. Police said they found the pilot still attached to his parachute at the farm with no signs of life. He was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment. Doctors at the Gangshan base hospital later confirmed that the pilot, identified as Chuang Pei-yuan, later died. Air force officers said initial finding showed the ill-fated plane collided with another AT-3 jet, code number 0847, mid-air. Code 0847 returned to base at 11:24am with the pilot Yang Chih-ping safe. But officers added Chuang had apparently ejected and opened the parachute, but it failed to fully open before the crash. The twin-engine AT-3, designed for pilot training, was developed by Taiwan in 1980 with US technology. It was the air force’s 11th accident involving training jets since 1994. Tuesday’s accident came six months after a Apache attack helicopter crashed into the roof of a three-storey residential building in Taoyuan on April 25, damaging four homes but causing no serious injuries. The accident, which happened after the pilot flew too low in bad weather, embarrassed the military after taking delivery of the helicopter from the US.