Taiwan Eagle AT-5 Brave Jet Crashes, Crew Selamat

UNSPLASH/Nick Fewings ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - One of Taiwan's new advanced jet trainers, which was developed domestically, crashed on Saturday, after reporting engine failure. Jet crew managed to save themselves.

AT-5 Brave Eagle, created by the state-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corp, with a budget of T$68.6 billion (US$2.1 billion), conducted its first flight test in 2020.

Taiwanese air force said the plane took off from its Chihhang air base in Taitung on the island's east coast and then reported the failure of its two engines.

Reported by Reuters on Saturday, February 15, the crew plunged into a safe place and was rescued. The investigation team has now been formed.

This is the first crash since AT-5 began to be handed over to the air force in 2021.

Taiwanese air force plans to use 66 units by 2026 to replace US-made AT-3 and F-5 trainers, which have seen a series of accidents in recent years.

Taiwan's armed forces are largely equipped by the United States, but the government has made developing a developed domestic defense industry a priority, especially when China, which claims the island as its own, is stepping up modernization efforts and military exercises near Taiwan.

AT-5 is Taiwan's first domestically made jet since the F-CK-1 Ching-kuo Indigenous Defense Fighter, or IDF, launched more than three decades ago, and both jets look similar and have similar capabilities.

AT-5 is used for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat training, and can land and take off using shorter runways.

The aircraft can be equipped with weapons, although it is still in the testing phase, and the aircraft is designed to have a supporting function during the war.