Thursday, October 04, 2012

Taiwanese pilot dies in Mirage 2000 crash in France

Two Mirage 2000 take off at an airbase in Taiwan
A Taiwanese pilot died yesterday morning after his Mirage 2000-5F crashed in France 

The pilot, identified as Wang Tung-yi (王同義) was on a training exchange program at the BA 116 airforce base in Luxeuil-les-Bains, Haute-Saone, and his aircraft crashed north of Luxeuil, near the Froideconche community soon after takeoff at 10:05am, French military officials told media. 

Froideconche Mayor Henri Passard said the aircraft crashed in a wooded area about 500m from a housing community and dozens of kilometers from the air base. “For the time being, nobody has been able to approach the site of the crash, for security reasons,” he said. “We must first determine what type of weapons were on board the aircraft.” 

French newspaper Le Figaro reported that witnesses had seen a “ball of fire” prior to the crash. Passard said that based on information he had received, the pilot did everything in his power to avoid crashing into houses.

My article, published today in the Taipei Times, continues here.

1 comment:

Mike Fagan said...

"Passard said that... the pilot did everything in his power to avoid crashing into houses."

Once a crash in an urban area becomes inevitable, nothing further can be demanded of a pilot.