Black box of missing F-16 located; retrieval team to be deployed: Air Force

Taipei, Jan. 12 (CNA) Taiwan's military said Thursday that it has located the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) of an F-16V fighter jet that disappeared off eastern Taiwan earlier this month, and it would soon deploy a salvage team to try to retrieve it.

In a statement, the Air Force Command Headquarters said that while it had pinned down the location of the black box, as the FDR is also called, it was still searching for the aircraft's sole pilot, Air Force Captain Hsin Po-yi (辛柏毅).

Without providing details, the Air Force said it had located the black box days after detecting some intermittent signals and would now engage a team of professionals to retrieve it.

• Intermittent signals detected from black box of missing F-16 jet: Minister

A military source told CNA on Thursday that the Air Force is currently looking for Singaporean or Japanese salvage companies to help with the retrieval mission, given the limited capabilities of Taiwanese entities to carry out deep-sea salvage operations.

The single-seat fighter jet, tail number 6700, went missing on Jan. 6, after Hsin took off from Hualien Air Base in eastern Taiwan at 6:17 p.m. on a nighttime training mission, and he soon reported that the aircraft was losing altitude, according to the Air Force.

• Air Force unable to confirm if F-16 pilot ejected before aircraft disappeared

At 7:28 p.m., Hsin reported that he was about to eject from the aircraft, and eight seconds later, the jet's signal disappeared from radar, the Air Force said, adding that there may have been some malfunction of the aircraft's main onboard computer.

The Air Force subsequently set up an emergency response center and launched a search and rescue operation, but has not yet been able to find either Hsin or the aircraft.