CNA file photo

Taipei, Nov. 25 (CNA) The contractor who won the tender to conduct a marine salvage mission to retrieve the black box of a Mirage-2000 fighter jet that went missing on Nov. 7 will begin the operation as early as Nov. 28, an unnamed Air Force official said Saturday.

Kaohsiung-based Dragon Prince Hydro-Survey Enterprise is ready to conduct the salvage mission, the official told CNA.

"Both the personnel and equipment are ready," he said, noting that the only obstacle holding up the mission were the poor weather conditions in the area.

According to current weather reports, the earliest possible date for the mission is most likely Nov. 28 when the weather and ocean conditions in the potential search areas are expected to take a turn for the better, the official said.

A total of 10 possible locations have been pinpointed for the mission, he revealed.

It has been 19 days since the Mirage-2000, piloted by Captain Ho Tzu-yu (何子雨), went missing off northeast Taiwan. Since then, the Air Force has detected and located a signal similar to that sent from the black box of a Mirage-2000 roughly 145 kilometers north-northeast of Keelung at a depth of 100 meters.

(By Elaine Hou and Romulo Huang)
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