1994 Han Kuang 11 exercise shootdown incident
Golden Eagle Air Transport Learjet 35A · ROCN Cheng Kung mistakenly shot down a target tug during exercise, killing all 4 on board
From Taiwan Tainan Airport to an unrecorded destination
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
Learjet 35A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 35
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- B-98181
- Operator
- Golden Eagle Air Transport
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Taiwan Tainan AirportTo not recorded
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
1994 Han Kuang 11 exercise shootdown incident occurred on September 17, 1994, 14:02 (GMT +8) off the coast of Zhiben, Taitung, Taiwan during the second rehearsal for Han Kuang 11 exercise. Golden Eagle Air Transport, a military contractor, provided target tug operation with a Learjet 35A, but was unexpectedly shot down by Phalanx CIWS on the frigate ROCN Cheng Kung, killing all 4 civilians on board. Later investigation led to a series of human error by the ROC Navy.
Incident
On the afternoon of September 17, 1994, the drill for naval weapon systems antimissile shooting (艦載武器反飛彈射擊) commenced off the coast of Zhiben, Taitung County (台東知本). The target tug
arrived on local time 13:39 and received order from the ASW officer on ROCN Cheng Kung to head for the standby area. The target tug would wait for the RIM-72C Sea Chaparral onboard ROCN Kwei Yang (貴陽艦) to conduct live fire exercise before it flew NNW towards ROCN Cheng Kung,
which was heading SW off the estuary of Zhiben River (知本溪). The target tug approached the frigate on
the port side, bearing 280, with the altitude of 1200 feet and the speed of 250 knots, and the target drone altitude 298 feet.
The Phalanx CIWS was expected to open fire only after the target tug flew past ROCN Cheng Kung and entered the safe zone. However, at local time 14:02, the Learjet proceeds to the designated route with a delay of around 20 seconds. Instead of waiting for the Learjet to flew past the frigate, the CIWS unexpectedly opened fire when the target tug still had a distance of 3.9 seconds. The Learjet was fatally struck, causing it to explode in midair and crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
The military postponed search and rescue efforts until the rehearsal has concluded. Ships in the area, including 14 missile boats and 12 frigates, recovered all four bodies with parts of the Learjet's wreckage. Military prosecutors performed autopsy and the wreckage was sent to the military for investigation. Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) also sent an investigation team by helicopter the next day, however as the military had refused to work with them, things did not went further.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Under immense pressure from Taiwan's congress, Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) established September 17 Incident Investigation Team (九一七專案小組), led by the deputy director of MND Inspector General's Office Lieutenant General Lin, Suo-Li (林所里) and ROC Air Force General Headquarters. The team reported directly to MND and Legislative Yuan, and superseded the Navy General Headquarters. Investigation revealed that the incident was caused by a series of human errors.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1994 Han Kuang 11 exercise shootdown incident” (revision 1367969541, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1994 Han Kuang 11 exercise shootdown incident
- Revision
- 1367969541 · 2026-08-06 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q139925917
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1994 Han Kuang 11 exercise shootdown incident" (page 83279660, revision 1367969541)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A civilian contractor flying a target-towing job for a naval exercise with four civilians on board: aerial work by a private company, which counts as general aviation. The article: "Golden Eagle Air Transport, a military contractor, provided target tug operation with a Learjet 35A"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.