Air force says remains found on mountain trail near New Taipei City in island’s north</s>TAIPEI: Taiwan's air force said the pilot of an F-16 fighter jet was killed after his plane crashed on Monday (Jun 4) in the mountains at the start of annual live-fire drills.

The single-seat jet disappeared off the radar over mountainous terrain in the northeastern county of Keelung at 1:43pm, 34 minutes after take off, the air force said.

The defence ministry, local police and fire department had conducted land and air searches for the 31-year-old pilot, Major Wu Yen-ting, for hours before discovering the wreckage of the plane on Monday evening.

"It is confirmed that the pilot has died in the line of duty ... a commission will be set up later to investigate and clarify the cause of the incident," the air force said in a statement.

President Tsai Ing-wen and Defence Minister Yen De-fa expressed their condolences and pledged compensation to the pilot's family.

Wu was also involved in the last F-16 accident in Taiwan, in 2013, when he parachuted to safety following a suspected mechanical failure.

The five-day "Han Guang" (Han Glory) drill kicked off Monday with troops practising thwarting a Chinese "invasion" by simulating surprise coastal assaults to reflect increased military threats from Beijing.

Although Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy, it has never formally declared independence from the mainland and Beijing still sees it as a renegade province to be brought back into the fold, by force if necessary.

Taiwan's defence ministry has said the main goal of the drill is to counter any future Chinese military mission to the island.

As relations have soured between Beijing and Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, China has increasingly flexed its military muscles.

It held live-fire drills in April in the Taiwan Strait - the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan - following weeks of naval manoeuvres in the area.

In November, Taiwan's air force temporarily grounded all its Mirage jets as it searched for a pilot who went missing while conducting a training mission in one of the French-made fighters. Both pilot and plane are yet to be found.</s>TAIPEI - Taiwan's air force said on Monday (June 4) it was searching for an F-16 fighter jet that went missing at the start of annual live-fire drills.

The single-seat jet disappeared off the radar over mountainous terrain in the northeastern county of Keelung at 1.43pm, 34 minutes after takeoff, the air force said in a statement.

It added that it was making "all efforts" to search for the missing pilot, Major Wu Yen-ting.

Maj Wu was also involved in the last F-16 accident in Taiwan, in 2013, when he parachuted to safety following a suspected mechanical failure.

The five-day drill kicked off on Monday with troops practising thwarting a Chinese "invasion" by simulating surprise coastal assaults to reflect increased military threats from Beijing.

Although Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy, it has never formally declared independence from the mainland and Beijing still sees it as a renegade province to be brought back into the fold, by force if necessary.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry has said the main goal of the drill is to counter any future Chinese military mission to the island.

As relations have soured between Beijing and Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, China has increasingly flexed its military muscles.

It held live-fire drills in April in the Taiwan Strait - the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan - following weeks of naval manoeuvres in the area.

In November, Taiwan's air force temporarily grounded all its Mirage jets as it searched for a pilot who went missing while conducting a training mission in one of the French-made fighters. Both pilot and plane are yet to be found.</s>The wreckage of the military plane was discovered by a hiker, two hours after it disappeared from radar screens on the first day of the exercises, according to Taiwan's official news agency CNA.

The pilot, 31-year-old Maj. Wu Yen-ting, was killed in the crash, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said Monday.

"The military is the guardian of the country and it is a high-risk career ... We will always remember your sacrifices. Your spirit will be with us. We will always be proud of you," a statement posted on Facebook said.

An investigative team is still determining the cause of the crash, CNA said, adding all F-16s had been grounded temporarily while the cause is determined. This handout picture from Taiwan's National Rescue Command Centre shows what is believed to be the wreckage of an F-16 fighter jet. The air force attributed the crash to "a combination of factors, including poor weather conditions and human error," CNA said. Eight F-16 fighter jets owned by Taiwan have crashed since 1998, according to CNA, killing seven pilots. Defense Minister Yen Teh-fa described the pilot as an "outstanding colleague" and praised his "loyalty and dedication to his duties." The loss of a fighter jet at the start of the live-fire drills is embarrassing for Taipei, which holds the exercises to demonstrate the defense capabilities of its military. Both Taiwan's navy and airforce are involved in the drills. It is one of the largest annual exercises held by Taiwan's military and the drills come at a time of heightened tensions with Beijing. Domestically produced RT-2000 rockets are launched during the Han Kuang live-fire drills on May 25, 2017. Taipei lost two diplomatic allies in May as Beijing stepped up its campaign to isolate the island , while the Chinese military in April conducted a large-scale show of force in the Taiwan Strait, the narrow strip of water that divides the two. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense told CNA the 2018 Han Kuang drills were designed to test joint air-sea combat, anti-landing operations in the island's north and south, as well as anti-aircraft operations. On Tuesday, the military simulated a real-time invasion by Chinese mainland forces at different points across the Taiwan Strait.</s>A Taiwanese fighter jet went missing in northern Taiwan on Monday at the start of the island’s biggest annual military drills, casting a shadow over exercises meant to showcase the island’s ability to fend off an attack.

The suspected crash comes after Beijing has conducted repeated rounds of military exercises around the island and as authorities on the island try to reassure voters ahead of elections later this year, according to analysts.

Taiwan’s air force said its base in Hualien on the island’s east coast lost contact with the F-16 jet at around 1.43pm after the aircraft had taken part in an exercise further north.

Military sources said the jet was thought to have encountered problems above New Taipei City before all contact was lost over the Keelung Mountains, Central News Agency reported.

The National Rescue Command Centre and the Ministry of Defence had launched a search-and-rescue mission to find the jet and its pilot, Wu Yen-ting, the report said.

Citing military sources, CNA said wreckage from the aircraft may have been found on a hillside in New Taipei City.

Wu ejected from an F-16 with minor injuries when the jet he commanded crashed off the coast of southern Taiwan five years ago.

As US confronts China on trade, Taiwan tensions quietly build

Before contact was lost on Monday, Wu’s jet was taking part in Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang live-fire military drills, five days of exercises designed to bolster combat readiness in the event of an attack from across the Taiwan Strait by the People’s Liberation Army.

The Han Kuang exercises include joint air-sea combat operations, anti-landing operations in the north and south of the island, and joint anti-airborne combat operations, according to CNA.

The F-16 was one of 150 bought from the United States to defend the strait.

Cross-strait tensions have risen under Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, with the leader refusing to acknowledge the “1992 consensus” that there is only “one China”.

Beijing says the consensus is the basis of any cross-strait dialogue and has ramped up pressure on the Tsai government with a series of air and naval exercises around the island.

Beijing should stop threatening Taiwan because it’s not strong enough to fight the US, island’s ex-premier says

With Tsai’s domestic approval ratings falling, this week’s military exercises were intended to placate Taiwanese voters ahead of midterm elections in November, analysts said.

Chang Ching, a military specialist from the Taipei-based Society for Strategic Studies think tank, said the annual drills were “show business for domestic consumption”, particularly as support for Tsai dwindled.

Since taking office two years ago, her approval ratings have fallen from 70 per cent to just over 50 per cent from two public opinion polls in late May, according to the .

“President Tsai needs to use the drills to justify her value … to regain popularity and approval ratings, especially given the election campaign in November,” Chang said.

“They won’t use this to send signals to mainland China – just to taxpayers and voters.</s>A Taiwanese air force fighter plane crashed Monday, killing the pilot and marring this week’s annual military exercises intended to help safeguard the island from its main foe, China.

The American-made F-16 fighter disappeared from radar screens an hour after takeoff Monday afternoon in low mountains outside the major northern port city of Keelung. Later, a hiker called police with reports of wreckage, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry and the government-backed Central News Agency reported. The pilot, identified as Maj. Wu Yen-ting, 31, died on the spot.

His crash, the second for Taiwan’s air force in less than a year, points to a lapse in personnel training and aircraft mechanics as Taiwan comes under more pressure from China, said Alexander Huang, a strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

Eight F-16s have crashed in Taiwan since 1998, according to the Defense Ministry. An air force Mirage 2000-model aircraft disappeared in November and was never found.

Monday kicked off Taiwan’s five-day Han Kuang live-fire exercises that simulate attacks from China.

China sits across an ocean strait, 100 miles from Taiwan at the nearest point, and has the world’s third-strongest armed forces.

Chinese officials claim sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and resent the Taiwanese president of two years, Tsai Ing-wen, for rejecting their idea that the two sides belong to a single country. Taiwan and China have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s.

Monday’s crash, attributed tentatively to weather conditions and human error, has grounded all F-16 flights until further notice. The air force has 140 of the fighter planes.

“Han Kuang will still be on, but of course the events with F-16 fighters would be changed,” Defense Ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi said.

China has flown military aircraft a dozen times just outside Taiwan’s air defense identification zone over the past three year as pressure on Tsai.</s>"One F-16 single-seat fighter went missing at 13:43 local time [05:43 GMT] while performing tasks set during the military exercises on Monday, a search and rescue operation has now been launched," the statement read, as quoted by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA).

According to the the National Rescue Command Center (NRCC), the jet went missing in the air above mountainous areas in Nuannuan District in Keelung port city.

The five-day Han Kuang military exercises, which are Taiwan's biggest annual drill, started on Monday.</s>The night air is warm as velvet as I watch the crowds below me dance and drum and parade their way through the last night of the annual lantern festival.

The night air is warm as velvet as I watch the crowds below me dance and drum and parade their way through the last night of the annual lantern festival.

It's been a long day since my breakfast of seafood congee and pickles washed down with green tea. I've been whisked through Tainan's National Museum of Taiwan Literature for a whistle-stop tour of this country's complex evolution from the oral culture of its aboriginal communities to one in which the written word is worshipped at 24-hour bookshops, complete with cafés and wine cellars. I've clambered the dusty Fort Zeelandia at Anping, which the Dutch East India Company established as a 17th-century trading post before being thrown out by Koxinga, a Ming-loyalist whose dynasty began Chinese rule of this much beleaguered island off the south-east coast of China.

I've craned my neck and donned shades to take in the mellow belly and 40 metres of golden bulges of the world's highest sitting buddha - or 108 metres including 36 floors of the Fo Guang Shan Buddha museum on which he perches. I've eaten crunchy shrimp rolls for lunch and grazed on an epic buffet dinner. (That glistening fresh-cut sushi! And that Sichuan-spiced beef noodle soup!)

I'm feeling full in every sense, and my hotel bed looks tempting. But the city below is calling so down I go to snake along through that river of families and friends who have gathered for one last night of new year celebrations. Down on the street, there are kids everywhere. And dogs... so many dogs. Most of them are as tall as you or me, wrought of wire and paper into colourful lanterns, larger-than-life creatures that have sprung straight from a 3D cartoon onto the quays of Kaohsiung's Love River. These Lunar New Year celebrations herald the start of the Year of the Dog, and many of this year's lanterns embrace that canine theme.

Sweetheart couples join shoals of teens to pose for selfies under one weaving tunnel of head-height lights. At several spots along the teeming quays, leather-faced couples croon into microphones with a casual professionalism that comes from years of performing together. Wherever I look, there is another street stall selling something delicious: every kind of shellfish, fresh from the natural bay of this port city, or local chestnuts from the Alishan highlands. Some folk are sampling cool bottles of local honey beer but the Taiwanese aren't big drinkers and most seem more interested in indulging their sweet tooth, maybe with fat heart-shaped waffles hot from the griddle or skewers of candied cherry tomatoes. Scenes like this are playing out across Taiwan's towns and cities, most of which are strung along the east coast of an island half the size of Ireland. The official Taiwan Lantern Festival started in Taipei in 1990, the year democracy came to Taiwan (or the Republic of China as its administration prefers, despite continued challenges from the People's Republic of China) and now moves from city to city each year.

The next morning, I get another chance to be wowed by that 40-metre Buddha, this time from above. I'm not in a light aircraft, though I feel remarkably airborne: instead we're strapped in at the iRide developed by Brogent, a local Kaohsiung tech company which supplies immersive flying theatres to theme parks. Feet dangling, we soar past Buddha's happy head, speed over local hilltops and whizz down to a nearby river where we're sprayed by a gentle mist as a group of whitewater rafters wave us by.

Three-quarters of the population of 23.5 million live in cities like Kaohsiung. These views remind me just how close those urban hubs are to a very different Taiwan: one of hill-walking treks into deep gorges or through forested highlands, of cycle routes around mountain-top lakes, of surf beaches and remote snorkelling spots. Even in Taipei, a capital city of seven million people, it's surprisingly easy to escape the high-rise metropolis with its chic boutiques and innovative Creative Parks, pungent night markets and incense-hazed Taoist temples. Within city limits lie calm havens like Nung Chan Monastery, a refuge for urban souls. A 20-minute train ride takes you to Beitou, a spa town developed by the Japanese during their short colonial rule, where you can soak in hot springs flanked by green hills, or to Taipei Zoo, where you can jump the Maokong Gondola cable car up to one of many teahouses overlooking the city.

When Mao’s Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the defeated Nationalists retreated to Taiwan (declaring Taipei the new capital of the Republic of China). They took with them a vast collection of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts, now displayed between Taipei’s unmissable National Palace Museum and its Southern Branch in Chiayi. Coinciding with the annual lantern festival (February/March), several local festivals light up the night in unique ways. Crowds flock to the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival outside Taipei to release sky lanterns inscribed with their wishes, while Tainan’s Yanshui Beehive Firecracker Festival sees revellers kit out in helmets and protective body suits for a fully immersive firework experience.

Pack an unlocked smart phone and grab a cheap sim card from the airport, or download the Taipei WiFi Alliance APP for single-entry access to free WiFi in many public areas. Use the EasyCard and iPASS as an e-wallet for convenience store purchases, MRT (metro) fares and YouBike rental. Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and surrounding park is a must-see, as is the impressive changing of the guard in Freedom Square in Taipei Aoife travelled as a guest of Dublin's Taipei Representative Office and Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fly to Taipei on one-stop connections with Turkish Airlines (turkishairlines.com), China Airlines (china-airlines.com) or with Emirates (emirates.ie). See https://eng.taiwan.net.tw for a useful introduction to its charms. In Tainan, Silks Place (silksplace-tainan.com) is a tasteful hotel reflecting the former capital's culture and charm. Hotel Royal-Nikko Taipei (royal-taipei.com.tw) is a smart and convenient downtown hotel within walking distance of many of Taipei's cultural and culinary highlights. Irish citizens can visit without a visa.
A ROCAF F-16 crashes into a mountain near New Taipei City in northern Taiwan. The pilot is confirmed dead following a search and rescue operation.