Hualien county: The Air Force announced that the pilot of a missing F-16V fighter jet, identified as Air Force Captain Hsin Po-yi, had indicated his intention to eject before the aircraft vanished from radar. However, the Air Force has not been able to verify if the ejection was executed successfully.

According to Focus Taiwan, the incident occurred during a nighttime training session on Tuesday. Captain Hsin became separated from his formation at 7:27 p.m. after the jets entered cloud cover, as detailed by Air Force Inspector General Chiang Yi-cheng in a news conference held in Hualien County. Audio recordings from the lead aircraft revealed that after reporting a descending altitude, Hsin communicated his decision to eject at 7:28 p.m., just eight seconds before the jet’s radar signal disappeared. The aircraft, bearing tail number 6700, was last tracked over waters approximately 36 nautical miles (66.6 kilometers) south of Hualien Air Base.

The Air Force is currently unable to confirm whether Captain Hsin successfully ejected from the aircraft. “So far, we have not received any signal from a survival equipment beacon, and therefore do not yet have conclusive evidence to confirm whether Captain Hsin successfully completed the ejection procedure,” Inspector General Chiang stated.