Taiwan F-5 fighter jet crashes during training

Taipei, May 11: A Taiwan fighter jet crashed today during an exercise aimed at countering an attack by China, killing the two pilots, military officials said.

Details about whether anyone on the ground was injured were still unknown, they said.

The two-seater F-5F jet crashed within the grounds of a military base in Hukou, around 50 kilometres south of the capital Taipei, Ministry of Defence spokesman Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang told Reuters by phone.

The crash comes as Taiwan's military prepares to hold the island's annual Han Kuang live fire drills aimed at repelling an attack from China next week.

China claims Taiwan as part of its own territory and has threatened war if the island was ever to declare formal independence.

Taiwan has roughly 60 of the ageing F-5 jets, according to analysts, and is seeking to buy around 60 advanced Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighter aircraft to replace the F-5s, its Ching-kuo Indigenous Defense Fighters.

Reuters>