Taiwan Brave Eagle jet trainer runs off Gangshan runway after brake failure

A T-5 Brave Eagle advanced jet trainer belonging to Taiwan's Air Force Flight Training Command ran off the runway at Gangshan air base in Kaohsiung on 10 November after a brake problem on landing, according to reports by the United Daily News, the China Times and Knews. The student pilot and the instructor on board were not hurt.

The jet was returning to Gangshan around midday local time after a routine training sortie when its brakes malfunctioned during the landing roll, the reports said. A tyre on one of the main wheels then burst and the aircraft veered off the runway. The United Daily News and the China Times said the main landing gear was damaged, while Knews reported damage to the wheel brake system.

The cause has not yet been established. Knews said it was still unclear in what order the brake fault, the tyre failure and the damage to the braking system occurred, and how badly the aircraft itself was damaged, and that these questions await the military's investigation. None of the three reports cited a formal air force statement on the incident or said how long the runway was out of use.

The excursion was the second landing mishap involving a training aircraft at Gangshan in less than a week, the China Times and Knews noted. On 4 November a T-34C basic trainer flown solo by a newly enrolled student bounced repeatedly on touchdown and landed heavily, damaging its nose gear, and the nose wheel came off.

At the time of that earlier incident, the United Daily News reported that the base briefly halted runway operations under its procedures and that some posts on social media had wrongly described it as a Brave Eagle running off the runway. The air force said then that the T-34C damage stemmed from the student's handling rather than a mechanical fault, and that a task group would investigate.

The two incidents add to scrutiny of training safety at the base. The United Daily News recalled that a T-34C crashed at Gangshan on 2 June this year, killing two air force colonels, and that the fleet resumed training only after special inspections. The piston-engined T-34C has been in Taiwanese service for more than 40 years.

The Brave Eagle is newer. Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation delivered the 66th and last production aircraft to the Air Force Academy at Gangshan on 24 September, completing a programme launched in 2017, Air Data News reported. One of the 66 was lost off Taitung in February 2025 after its pilot reported a loss of power in both engines and ejected safely.

The twin-engine trainer is derived from the F-CK-1 Ching-kuo fighter and replaced both the AT-3 and the F-5E/F in the air force's pilot syllabus. Training now runs in three stages on two aircraft types, with the T-34C followed by the T-5 before student pilots move to frontline fighters such as the F-16. With production finished, the manufacturer's role has shifted to maintenance, upgrades and logistics support for the fleet.

The latest incident therefore touches the jet that now carries the whole advanced phase of Taiwan's fighter pilot training. The air force had not published findings on either Gangshan mishap at the time of the reports.