On 2 January 2020, a

Black Hawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to: Animals * Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856 * Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus'' * Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii'' * Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus ur ...

helicopter of the

Republic of China Air Force The Republic of China Air Force, retroactively known by its historical name the Chinese Air Force and unofficially referred to as the Taiwanese Air Force, is the military aviation branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces, currently based i ...

(ROCAF) Air Rescue Group crashed in the

Wulai District Wulai District ( Atayal: Ulay; ) is a mountain indigenous district in southern New Taipei City in northern Taiwan. It sits near the border with Taipei and is famous for its hot springs. It is the largest district in New Taipei, as well as the mo ...

New Taipei New Taipei City is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest s ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, while executing a VIP transport mission. General

Shen Yi-ming Shen Yi-ming (; 30 March 1957 – 2 January 2020) was a Taiwanese military officer who served as a Republic of China Air Force general and the Chief of the General Staff, Deputy Minister of National Defense for Policy, and Commander of the ROC ...

, Republic of China's Chief of the General Staff (CGS), along with 7 other personnel on board, died in the crash.

Crash

The

was taking off for a routine mission to visit service personnel in Dong'aoling Radar Station,

Su'ao Su'ao Township (), alternately romanized as Su-ao, is located in southern Yilan County, Taiwan, is an urban township that is famous for its seafood restaurants and cold springs. It is a terminus of National Highway No. 5, the Su'ao-Hualien ...

, Yilan county. The helicopter lost contact with Songshan Air Base at 8:07 AM, thirteen minutes after taking off and crashed into a mountainside. General

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Afg ...

, was on board the helicopter along with seven other officers and a senior enlisted adviser from the General Staff Headquarters,

Ministry of National Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

(MND-GSH), a military correspondent, and three crew members. Shen and seven others including two Major Generals were killed, while five others were injured.

Victims

Eight military servicemembers were killed and 5 were wounded.

Investigation

During a news conference on 2 January, General Hsiung Hou-chi, Commanding General of the Air Force, stated that the government has set up a task force to investigate the cause of the crash. The

flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...

s of the aircraft were recovered on 3 January and sent to the

Taiwan Transportation Safety Board The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board (TTSB, ) is an independent government agency of the Republic of China responsible for major transportation accidents on aviation, railways, waterways, and highways in Taiwan. The council is headquartered in ...

. Proprietary hardware within the flight recorders were delivered to

Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923 and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian and military use. Pre ...

. On 21 July 2020, the

Control Yuan The Control Yuan is the supervisory and auditory branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Prior to constitutional reforms in the 1990s, the Control Yuan, along with National Assembly (electoral college) and the Legislative ...

announced that Jen I-wei and Chou Shih-kai, both of whom were posted to the Air Force Weather Wing's No. 8 Base at the time of the crash, had been impeached. It was reported in January 2022 that the

Judicial Yuan The Judicial Yuan () is the judicial branch of the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan.''See'' Constitution arts. 77-82, ''available at'' ''See'' Additional Articles of the Constitution art. 5, ''available at'' It runs a Constitution ...

's Disciplinary Court had barred Jen from working in the public sector for two years. No penalty was issued to Chou, due to insufficient evidence against him.

Aftermath

This crash occurred nine days before the Taiwanese general election. President

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician serving as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2016. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan. She served as ...

's campaign office and

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...

announced that their presidential and legislative campaign activities would be stopped for three days, and

Han Kuo-yu Daniel Han Kuo-yu (; born 17 June 1957) is a Taiwanese politician. He was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 1993 to 2002, representing a portion of Taipei County for three terms. He later became general manager of Taipei Agricultural Produc ...

's presidential campaign office said that Han would cancel campaign events for two days.

Reactions

United States

General

Mark A. Milley Mark Alexander Milley (born June 20, 1958) is a United States Army general who serves as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from August 14, 2015 to August 9, 2019, and hel ...

, Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a statement to express condolences to members of the Taiwan military on the death of General Shen and the seven other deceased on behalf of the U.S. military.

American Institute in Taiwan The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT; ) is the ''de facto'' Embassy of the United States of America in Taiwan. The AIT institution is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal government of the United States in Taiwan with Congressional oversi ...

(AIT), U.S. representative mission on the island, also issued a statement to extend condolences on the accident, and that it stands ready to assist their Taiwan counterparts in the aftermath. On 3 January, the

flag of the United States The national flag of the United States, United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rect ...

at AIT Taipei Main Office flew at half-staff.

Japan

The Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association stated that "they were shocked and grief-stricken at the unfortunate deaths of the eight personnel, including Chief of Staff General Shen Yiming and would be mourned for their valor and service to their nation. At the same time also wishing the five remaining surviving personnel a speedy and healthy recovery."

Other countries

Australian Office in Taipei The Australian Office in Taipei () represents Australian interests in Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic relations, functioning as a ''de facto'' embassy. The Office is headed by a Representative. Its counterpart in Australia is the Ta ...

German Institute Taipei The German Institute Taipei (German: Deutsches Institut Taipei); () is the overseas representative office of Germany in Taiwan, which promotes the non-diplomatic German-Taiwanese relations and looks after German interests there. Tasks of the inst ...

British Office Taipei British Office Taipei (), formerly British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO), is the representative office of the United Kingdom Government in Taiwan with a principal role to promote the British trade and investment interests. It functions as a ...

Polish Office in Taipei Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

, along with other foreign missions in Taiwan, as well as Haitian President

Jovenel Moïse Jovenel Moïse (; ; 26 June 1968 – 7 July 2021) was a Haitian entrepreneur and politician, who served as the 43rd President of Haiti from 2017 until his assassination in 2021. He was sworn in as president in February 2017 after winning the ...

, Paraguayan Minister of Defense Bernardino Soto Estigarribia and San Christopher and Nevis Minister of Foreign Affairs

Mark Brantley Mark Anthony Graham Brantley (born 11 January 1969) is the Premier of Nevis, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and former Minister of Foreign Affairs for St Kitts and Nevis. On May 10, 2022, Dr Timothy Harris, having lost the supp ...

and other senior foreign government officials have also expressed their condolences on Facebook or Twitter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Taipei helicopter crash, 2020 2020 disasters in Taiwan 2020 in Taiwan Accidents and incidents involving helicopters Accidents and incidents involving the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk Accidents and incidents involving military aircraft Aviation accidents and incidents in 2020 Aviation accidents and incidents in Taiwan History of New Taipei January 2020 events in Asia Military history of Taiwan