Taiwan rescues pilot after jet crash

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s air force said one of its Frenchmade Mirage 2000 fighter jets appears to have been lost off the island’s east coast, but the pilot has been rescued after parachuting to safety.

The air force said Lt. Col. Huang Chung-kai ejected at around 10:30 a.m. Monday after reporting mechanical trouble.

Huang had taken off about one hour earlier from Taitung Air Base on a routine training mission, the air force said. He was picked up by a rescue helicopter, it said.

Taitung lies on the Pacific Ocean on the opposite side of the island from the Taiwan Strait, which divides Taiwan from mainland China.

At a news conference, Air Force Maj. Gen. Liu Hui-chien said Huang radioed in that he was having problems about half an hour before ejecting about 10 nautical miles south of the base. Huang is in good condition at an area hospital, Liu said, and all Mirage 2000s have been grounded pending further investigation.

Taiwan’s air force has suffered from aging equipment and difficulties purchasing replacements amid Chinese efforts to isolate the island it considers its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

It operates 55 Mirage 2000s purchased in the 1990s amid Chinese anger, along with 140 U.S. F-16s and 129 homemade Indigenous Defense Fighters.

Many of the aircraft China uses on such missions are slower surveillance, patrol and transport aircraft such as the Y-8, one of which reportedly crashed in the South China Sea earlier this month.

China has not acknowledged the crash and it has not been independently confirmed.