TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The flight recorder and a piece of the Brave Eagle Advanced Jet Trainer that crashed into the ocean a month ago have been recovered, the Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday.
However, the military added it wanted to find the plane’s engines to ascertain the certain cause of the accident, per CNA. Mechanical failure and bird strike had been mentioned as possible causes.
During a training mission over the ocean east of Dulan in Taitung County, the jet suddenly lost power in both engines at the same time. The pilot, Air Force Major-in-training Lin Wei (林瑋), ejected to safety by parachute and spent two days at a hospital.
The Air Force hired the salvage firm Dragon Geosciences to recover the plane. The company sent a specialized ship, the Polaris 3, to locate the wreckage and its flight recorder.
On Wednesday, the ship found the black box and the front part of the plane’s fuselage, and pulled them out of the water, the ministry said. Further analysis of the flight recorder and the recovery of the engines should provide more clues to why the Brave Eagle crashed, Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told lawmakers.
Experts had listed four types of mechanical incidents including a total of 12 possibilities for the engine trouble, per Radio Taiwan International. A review of 36 Brave Eagles had shown no problems, so flights were allowed to resume from March 5.
The Air Force ordered 66 Brave Eagles from Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, with the 43rd being delivered after the accident. That was four fewer than according to the original timetable, due to the late supply of parts from overseas.
The company is now working with the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology to manufacture the parts in Taiwan.
