Taiwan's air force reports a trainer hard landing and an F-16 stuck on a runway on the same day

Taiwan's air force dealt with two landing incidents at two bases on 4 November. In the morning a T-34 basic trainer flown by a student on a solo sortie made a hard landing at Gangshan Air Force Base in Kaohsiung, and in the afternoon an F-16 fighter returning to Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Taichung ended up stuck on the runway after a hydraulic fault. No one was hurt in either case.

Hard landing at Gangshan

The Air Force Command Headquarters said the T-34 came down hard during a student solo training flight and stopped on the runway, that the people involved were safe, and that trainers already airborne were sent to land at nearby airfields. It said a dedicated team would be assigned to investigate the cause.

Public broadcaster PTS reported that the trainer's nose wheel was damaged and that 16 other training aircraft had to divert. Huang Chih-wei, a deputy chief of the general staff, told reporters the incident did not appear to be caused by a mechanical fault but by a small technical error in how the aircraft was handled, adding that the damage was light and the situation was under control. He said new trainees occasionally make such errors and that the risk was being managed.

CTi News reported that the student was making a first solo flight with the Flight Training Command. Liberty Times said the aircraft appeared to bounce on touchdown, putting heavy stress on the nose wheel, and that the 16 aircraft in the air were diverted to a reserve field in Tainan. PTS noted that a T-34 from the same base crashed in June this year, killing two pilots, which has kept attention on the trainer fleet.

F-16 blocks Taichung's runway

The second incident involved an F-16 of the air force's 5th Tactical Fighter Wing returning from a training flight, according to Liberty Times and CTi News. Both outlets said a hydraulic failure prevented the landing gear from coming down normally, so the pilot went around and lowered the gear manually before landing safely. After touchdown the nose wheel locked and could not steer, leaving the jet stranded on the runway that Ching Chuan Kang shares with Taichung's civilian airport.

China Times said the military described the case only as having been handled under normal procedures, with the aircraft and pilot safe. The Taichung airport office of the Civil Aeronautics Administration told the paper that the disruption lasted from 1:58 pm to 2:17 pm local time and delayed three civilian flights. PTS put the number of affected flights at four. The fighter was towed off the runway at about 2:17 pm, and the air force is investigating the fault.

Why it matters

Neither incident caused injuries, and the military has so far blamed the trainer mishap on pilot handling rather than the aircraft. But the two events came on the same day and drew renewed scrutiny of flight safety after the fatal trainer crash in June. CTi News noted that the air force has been holding its annual Tianlong exercise for five days from 2 November, and said it was not yet clear whether the F-16 was taking part. The findings of the two investigations will show whether the causes were isolated or point to wider maintenance or training problems.