2020 Republic of China Air Force F-5E fighter crash
Northrop F-5 · Crash
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
- 1 · 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
- Military
Northrop F-5
- Aircraft type
- Northrop F-5
- 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
- 5261
- Operator
- Republic of China Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
The 2020 Republic of China Air Force F-5E fighter crash was a Taiwanese air accident that occurred on 29 October 2020; an F-5E fighter numbered 5261 belonging to the Republic of China Air Force was on a mission in Taitung that morning when, less than 2 minutes after takeoff, it crashed into the sea 1 nautical mile north of Chihhang Air Base due to engine failure; the pilot, Captain Chu Kuan, ejected and parachuted into the sea, and died despite rescue efforts.
Course of events
On 29 October, an F-5E fighter from the Air Force's Chihhang Air Base in Taitung crashed; Captain Chu Kuan-meng parachuted into the sea, was taken to Taitung MacKay Memorial Hospital for emergency treatment, and was pronounced dead. After the crash, the Air Force Command Headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense ordered the grounding of all F-5E and F-5F fighters. The Republic of China Armed Forces' F-5E is a fighter that began leaving the factory in October 1974 and ceased production in the mid-1980s. The Republic of China Ministry of National Defense had said as early as ten years before that it would retire this type; because of this accident, then Minister of National Defense of the Republic of China Yen De-fa stated on 30 October 2020 that from 2021 the F-5E would be retired first from the Taitung wing, and all would be replaced within 3 years.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Chinese Wikipedia article “2020年中華民國空軍F-5E戰鬥機墜毀事故” (revision 90036577, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Chinese Wikipedia article: 2020年中華民國空軍F-5E戰鬥機墜毀事故
- Article
- 2020年中華民國空軍F-5E戰鬥機墜毀事故
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 90036577 · 2025-11-16 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q104982272
- 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
- zh Wikipedia article "2020年中華民國空軍F-5E戰鬥機墜毀事故" (page 7255998, revision 90036577), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- 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
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Chinese Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.