The Black Hawk was taking off for a routine mission to visit service personnel in Dong'aoling Radar Station, Su'ao, Yilan county.[4] The helicopter lost contact with Songshan Air Base at 8:07 AM, thirteen minutes after taking off and crashed into a mountainside.[3][1]
General Shen Yi-ming, Chief of the General Staff, was on board the helicopter along with seven other officers and a senior enlisted adviser from the General Staff Headquarters, Ministry of National Defense (MND-GSH), a military correspondent, and three crew members. Shen and seven others including two Major Generals were killed, while five others were injured.[3]
Victims
Eight military servicemembers were killed and 5 were wounded.[5]
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 accident.[3] The flight recorders of the aircraft were recovered on 3 January and sent to the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board.[6][7] Proprietary hardware within the flight recorders were delivered to Sikorsky Aircraft.[8]
On 21 July 2020, the Control Yuan 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 accident, had been impeached.[9][10] It was reported in January 2022 that the Judicial Yuan'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.[11]
Aftermath
President Tsai Ing-wen, along with Generals and Admirals, participated in a moment of silence on the military conference after the helicopter accidentNational flag at Dong'aoling Radar Station, scheduled destination of the flight, lowered to half-staff on 4 January in condolence of the accident
This accident occurred nine days before the Taiwanese general election. President Tsai Ing-wen's campaign office and Democratic Progressive Party announced that their presidential and legislative campaign activities would be stopped for three days,[12][13] and Han Kuo-yu's presidential campaign office said that Han would cancel campaign events for two days.[3]
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."[18]
^"哀痛黑鷹重大傷亡！蔡英文、民進黨全黨今起暫停三天選舉活動" [Sorrow for the heavy casualties of the Blackhawk! Tsai Ing-wen, DPP's entire party suspended three-day elections today]. ettoday.net (in Traditional Chinese). 2 January 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
^"黑鹰失事 民进党暂停三天竞选活动" [Blackhawk DPP suspended for three days] (in Traditional Chinese). Chinatimes.com. 2 January 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
^姿瑩 [Ziying], 侯 [Hou] (3 January 2020). 興盟 [Xingmeng], 林 [Lin] (ed.). "沈一鳴等8人搭黑鷹罹難 AIT內湖新館降半旗哀悼" [Shen Yi-ming and 8 others killed in Blackhawk] (in Chinese). Central News Agency. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
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