Hundreds still stranded in Matsu as military transport aircraft grounded

Taipei, July 9 (CNA) Hundreds of people whose trips were disrupted by Typhoon Danas are still stranded on the offshore Matsu Islands Wednesday after a plan to fly them home on C-130 military transport aircraft was cancelled due to poor weather.

With the outer band of a tropical storm bringing strong winds and heavy rain to Matsu (Lienchiang County), Nangan and Beigan airports were closed in the morning and had not resumed operations as of press time.

According to the Lienchiang County government, the Ministry of National Defense agreed to arrange four trips on C-130 aircraft to pick up stranded visitors after a request from Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生), but the plan was cancelled.

As of 2 p.m., seven flights from Nangan to Taipei Songshan Airport and one flight from Beigan to the same destination were cancelled, and one Uni Air flight that had been scheduled to arrive at Nangan Airport had to double back due to strong winds preventing it from landing.

That left hundreds of grounded visitors at Nangan Airport, after the New Taima cruise ship took 629 passengers from Matsu to Keelung Port in northern Taiwan.

On Tuesday night, the Lienchiang County Traffic and Tourism Bureau estimated that around 1,200 visitors were stranded in the offshore county.