TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A female officer died when she was sucked into the engine of an Indigenous Defense Fighter at the Ching Chuan Kang Air Force Base in Taichung, reports said Tuesday.
The Air Force ordered all IDF jets to ground while the cause was investigated. As a member of the military’s ground staff, she was checking on an aircraft that had just landed before its engine was switched off, the Liberty Times reported.
For an unknown reason, she was sucked into the right-side engine. Attempts to revive her proved futile, and she was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The Air Force said it would fully cooperate with investigators and military police while assisting her relatives. A general evaluation will focus on adjusting work procedures to ensure an accident cannot happen again, said the Air Force.
The officer had been active in the force for 17 years and was recently promoted. The aircraft was an upgraded single-seat IDF jet prototype from the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, per UDN.
