The island’s defense ministry said the F-16V, the most advanced type in Taiwan’s fleet, disappeared from radar screens after taking off from Chiayi Air Base in southern Taiwan for a training mission at a coastal firing range.
President Tsai Ing-wen issued instructions to spare no effort in the search and rescue operation and to “further clarify the cause of the accident”, her spokesman said.
The government’s Rescue Command Center said eyewitnesses had seen the plane crash at sea and helicopters and ships were searching for the pilot.
Air Force Inspector General Liu Hui-chien said the aircraft was recently upgraded to a “V” version with new weapon systems and avionics.
He added that combat training for the F-16 fleet has now been suspended.
In late 2020, an F-16 disappeared shortly after taking off from Huilian Air Base on Taiwan’s east coast on a routine training mission.
Last year, two F-5E fighter planes, which first entered service in Taiwan in the 1970s, crashed into the sea off the southeast coast after apparently colliding in mid-air during a training mission .
While Taiwan’s air force is well trained, it has been under stress over the past two years from repeated scrambles to find Chinese military aircraft, although the accidents have not been linked in any way to these interception activities.
China, which claims the democratic island as its own, regularly sends aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense zone, mostly around the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands, but occasionally between Taiwan and the Philippines. Even in the airspace.