Taiwan's air force grounded its fleet of Mirage 2000 fighter jets on Monday after one crashed into the sea. It was the fighter's second loss in three months, although this time the pilot was rescued.
Taiwan's air force said the French-made plane took off just after 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) on a training mission from Chihhang air base in the southeastern city of Taitung and reported that it had to return after mechanical problems. .
The pilot ejected over the sea south of the air base and was rescued safely and in good condition by helicopter, he added.
Taiwan Air Force Inspector General Liu Hui-chien told reporters that the Mirage fleet would be grounded while investigations were underway.
Taiwan received its first of 60 Mirage jets in 1997, although it has been upgraded several times since then, six have been lost in accidents.
In January, the air force suspended combat training for its much larger F-16 fleet after a recently upgraded model of the fighter jet crashed into the sea, killing the pilot.
Last year, two F-5E fighters, which first entered service in Taiwan in the 1970s, crashed into the sea after the planes apparently collided mid-air during a training mission, also from Chihhang air base.
In late 2020, an F-16 disappeared shortly after taking off from the Hualien air base on Taiwan's east coast on a routine training mission.
While Taiwan's air force is well trained, it has repeatedly repelled Chinese military aircraft from intruding in its air defense zone in the past two years.
China, which claims the democratic island as its own, has routinely sent planes into Taiwan's air defense zones, mostly in the area around the Taiwan-held Pratas Islands but occasionally into the airspace between Taiwan and the Philippines.
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