Crash revives talk of a Taiwanese Bermuda Triangle
Associated Press in Taipei 29 October 2008
The two-seat Taiwanese fighter jet disappeared last week during a routine training mission over the Taiwan Strait. Debris and body parts were found the next day, but authorities are at a loss to explain what happened.
The October 20 crash revived decades-old speculation: Are Taiwan’s Penghu islands the Bermuda Triangle of Asia?
“The Bermuda terror,” boomed a headline in the United Evening News, a Taiwanese newspaper. “Three hundred dead or missing in 40 years over here.”
Cable news stations aired grisly images of earlier plane crashes in the area, sparking debate in internet chat rooms.
The reports prompted Penghu officials to issue a statement disputing the Bermuda Triangle comparison, which they fear might scare away investors in a casino resort and other projects.
Most experts dismiss the idea and speculation that an irregular magnetic field disrupts navigation instruments. Scientists have found nothing abnormal in the area, says geologist Chen Wen-shan at National Taiwan University.
The pristine waters around the Penghu islands, a popular beach destination 80 kilometres west of the Taiwanese mainland, have seen their share of crashes.
Government records show at least three commercial planes, one civilian helicopter and five fighter jets have crashed in the area in the past two decades.
Earlier, several spy planes reportedly went down or missing while flying missions to mainland China during the cold war in the 1960s and 1970s. The military refuses to confirm the reports, saying most of the documents remain classified.
The deadliest accident came in May 2002, when a China Airlines flight to Hong Kong broke into four parts over seas north of Penghu, killing all 225 aboard. Seven months later, a cargo plane crashed in the same area.
The back-to-back crashes bolstered the Bermuda Triangle speculation so much, that tourists all but shunned Penghu in the following months.
So far, the recent fighter jet crash has not rekindled as many jitters among the public, much to the relief of local officials.
Penghu County Chief Wang Chien-fa blames the crashes on the high volume of air traffic, saying most of the mishaps have been shown to be the result of either human or mechanical failure.
“With so many aircraft flying over our air space everyday, the chances of crashes are proportionally higher, and that’s all,” he said in a telephone interview.
Yuan Hsiao-feng, an aviation expert at National Chengkung University, points to the high risks of military training flights.
Ending a summer season that drew thousands of swimmers to its beaches, the island chain of 90,000 people is now getting ready to welcome windsurfers.
Tourism officials also hope that Penghu will benefit from a recent relaxing of travel restrictions for mainlanders who want to visit Taiwan.
The islands, first settled by shipwrecked Chinese sailors 700 years ago, have an undersea ancient wall and other ruins. They also are an attraction because they were once at the forefront of the bitter Taiwan-China military standoff, said tourism official Hong Tung-lin.
The Chinese have long seen the islands as mysterious, because of their inaccessibility and a past history of shipwrecks, he said.
South of Penghu, an area called the “Ditch of Black Waters” is a graveyard for numerous boats, said to have capsized in swirling seas during the height of Chinese immigration to Taiwan two to three centuries ago.
Japanese pilots and sailors are said to have tried to avoid the rough seas off Penghu, known to them as the “devil’s sea” during Japan’s 50-year rule of Taiwan that ended in 1945.
Today, trawlers and cargo ships sail through the region safely.
“The mystic perception is fine but we hope people will not associate this area with danger,” Mr Hong said.
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Crash revives talk of a Taiwanese Bermuda Triangle
Associated Press in Taipei
29 October 2008
The two-seat Taiwanese fighter jet disappeared last week during a routine training mission over the Taiwan Strait. Debris and body parts were found the next day, but authorities are at a loss to explain what happened.
The October 20 crash revived decades-old speculation: Are Taiwan’s Penghu islands the Bermuda Triangle of Asia?
“The Bermuda terror,” boomed a headline in the United Evening News, a Taiwanese newspaper. “Three hundred dead or missing in 40 years over here.”
Cable news stations aired grisly images of earlier plane crashes in the area, sparking debate in internet chat rooms.
The reports prompted Penghu officials to issue a statement disputing the Bermuda Triangle comparison, which they fear might scare away investors in a casino resort and other projects.
Most experts dismiss the idea and speculation that an irregular magnetic field disrupts navigation instruments. Scientists have found nothing abnormal in the area, says geologist Chen Wen-shan at National Taiwan University.
The pristine waters around the Penghu islands, a popular beach destination 80 kilometres west of the Taiwanese mainland, have seen their share of crashes.
Government records show at least three commercial planes, one civilian helicopter and five fighter jets have crashed in the area in the past two decades.
Earlier, several spy planes reportedly went down or missing while flying missions to mainland China during the cold war in the 1960s and 1970s. The military refuses to confirm the reports, saying most of the documents remain classified.
The deadliest accident came in May 2002, when a China Airlines flight to Hong Kong broke into four parts over seas north of Penghu, killing all 225 aboard. Seven months later, a cargo plane crashed in the same area.
The back-to-back crashes bolstered the Bermuda Triangle speculation so much, that tourists all but shunned Penghu in the following months.
So far, the recent fighter jet crash has not rekindled as many jitters among the public, much to the relief of local officials.
Penghu County Chief Wang Chien-fa blames the crashes on the high volume of air traffic, saying most of the mishaps have been shown to be the result of either human or mechanical failure.
“With so many aircraft flying over our air space everyday, the chances of crashes are proportionally higher, and that’s all,” he said in a telephone interview.
Yuan Hsiao-feng, an aviation expert at National Chengkung University, points to the high risks of military training flights.
Ending a summer season that drew thousands of swimmers to its beaches, the island chain of 90,000 people is now getting ready to welcome windsurfers.
Tourism officials also hope that Penghu will benefit from a recent relaxing of travel restrictions for mainlanders who want to visit Taiwan.
The islands, first settled by shipwrecked Chinese sailors 700 years ago, have an undersea ancient wall and other ruins. They also are an attraction because they were once at the forefront of the bitter Taiwan-China military standoff, said tourism official Hong Tung-lin.
The Chinese have long seen the islands as mysterious, because of their inaccessibility and a past history of shipwrecks, he said.
South of Penghu, an area called the “Ditch of Black Waters” is a graveyard for numerous boats, said to have capsized in swirling seas during the height of Chinese immigration to Taiwan two to three centuries ago.
Japanese pilots and sailors are said to have tried to avoid the rough seas off Penghu, known to them as the “devil’s sea” during Japan’s 50-year rule of Taiwan that ended in 1945.
Today, trawlers and cargo ships sail through the region safely.
“The mystic perception is fine but we hope people will not associate this area with danger,” Mr Hong said.
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