Observer Network quoted a report from the island media on November 18, saying that at about 6:17 the previous night, an F-16 fighter jet that took off from Hualien base suddenly disappeared from the radar screen.
Up to now, no missing contact has been found. Pilot. This is the second fighter that has suffered an accident since the F-5E fighter jet crashed during daily flight training on October 29.
Interestingly, there have been a lot of rumors on the Internet on both sides of the Taiwan Strait that F16 fighter jets that lost contact with Taiwan flew to Xiamen to “revolt and surrender.”
Although we need to fight resolutely on the other side and insist on splitting the country, the “uprising and surrender” is a bit too big and less likely. Although the wreckage of the aircraft has not yet been found, the possibility of “good luck and bad luck” is greater.
First of all, the lost F-16 did not perform training tasks alone, but a four-aircraft formation acting together. Once an aircraft has an “uprising” attempt, it will inevitably be discovered by other F-16 wingmen, even if they will not open fire.
And will definitely report the situation to the tower, it is impossible to let go of a companion without saying a word. Moreover, Hualien is in Taitung, the air force base farthest from the mainland. From here to the mainland, you have to bypass half of Taiwan.
It is impossible for there to be no movement at all.
Taiwan Air Force F-16 fighter jets take off under the night
Secondly, although the current situation on both sides of the strait is relatively eased, the relationship between the two sides of the strait is essentially a war.
Both sides have deployed a large number of air defense radar systems along the Taiwan Strait, and it is obviously unlikely that F-16 fighter jets will escape such a large number of radars and early warning aircraft Monitoring. On July 4, 2016, Taiwan’s “Xiongfeng-3” anti-ship missile accidentally went into fire.
According to Taiwan’s electronic surveillance department, the frequency of the radar on the opposite shore changed in just one second… It can be seen that the two sides of the strait It looks loose, but the preparation strings are very tight in private.
In this case, it is difficult for the F-16 to penetrate the air defense nets of both sides.
Third, take a step back and talk about it. Even if “revolt and surrender”, it is unlikely to fly to Xiamen Airport, because the opposite of Xiamen is Kinmen, the distance between the two is less than 2 kilometers, and there are also anti-aircraft missiles deployed on Kinmen Island. If an aircraft attempts to “revolt” to the mainland, it will inevitably be shot down immediately.
Therefore, even if a Taiwan aircraft wants to “revolt,” at least it must choose a place that avoids Taiwan’s air defense circle of fire instead of hitting it head-on. Online rumors claiming that Xiamen Airport has “complete martial law and all flights cancelled” today are completely nonsense. A friend in Xiamen confirmed that the airport is used as usual without any abnormalities.
The F-16 fighter is the core force of Taiwan’s current fighters. Although they are all early F-16A/B types, they have undergone mid-term upgrades and installed a new radar avionics and electronic countermeasure system, which can use AIM-120 mid-range Air-to-air missiles and AIM-9X combat missiles have strong air combat capabilities.
Since September, due to serious tensions in cross-strait relations, our military has intensified war patrols and exercises around the Taiwan Strait to warn the separatist forces not to act recklessly. To this end, the island also frequently dispatched fighter jets to respond.
Many pilots on the island are already quite exhausted after continuing high-intensity flights. According to the retired pilots in front of the stage, the severe fatigue caused the pilots to appear “phantom vision.”
According to the island’s statement, the lost F-16 fighter jet dropped 7000 meters in 20 seconds before losing contact. Therefore, it is very likely that the pilot had a “phantom vision” problem, which eventually caused the plane to fall directly into the sea.
Although many netizens sincerely hope that Taiwan’s fighter jets will fly to the mainland to “revolt and surrender”, there is still a high probability that it will be a flight accident.
