Taiwan's top military chief killed in chopper crash
Taipei: Taiwan's top military chief was killed in a helicopter crash on Thursday, the defence ministry said, just days before the island goes to polls to elect a new president.
The chief of the general staff, Shen Yi-ming, was among eight senior officers -- including three major generals -- who died when their Black Hawk helicopter smashed into mountains near Taipei.
The 62-year-old general and his entourage were on a routine mission to visit soldiers in northeast Yilan county when the incident happened.
"Five have survived while the other eight of our colleagues on board were killed. We are deeply saddened ... and give our condolences to their families," Air Force Commander Hsiung Hou-chi told reporters.
Survivor Tsao Ching-ping told rescuers in footage broadcast on local TV: "I am okay... two others are injured and only I can walk." "There is one more person who's more seriously wounded and two or three people in the cabin ... while two more with no signs of life."
President Tsai Ing-wen's office said that she will cancel all campaign activities for three days after the tragedy. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party will also suspend campaigning for three days.
"As commander-in-chief President Tsai and the cabinet team will focus on the rescue operations as well as clarifying the cause of the incident," it said in a statement.
Tsai is seeking a second term against Kaohsiung city mayor Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomintang (KMT) party in the January 11 elections when Taiwan will also elect a new parliament.
Han -- who will stop campaigning for two days -- and the KMT also expressed condolences to the victims.
There have been a number of incidents involving Black Hawk helicopters -- purchased from the United States -- in recent years in Taiwan.
In 2018, a chopper belonging to a government rescue agency crashed during a medical mission off outlying Orchid Island, killing six people on board.
There were also two crash landings in 2016 and 2018 with no casualties.
The chopper carrying 13 people disappeared from radar less than 15 minutes after taking off, according to Hsiung, adding that the ministry had set up a taskforce to investigate the incident.
"We are investigating whether (the cause) was environmental or mechanical," he said. An air force official said some on board were "trapped under fragments of the helicopter" without elaborating.
The ministry has dispatched ground troops and rescue helicopters to the crash site in northeastern Taiwan.
"It had been raining in the mountains in the past few days, the mountain roads are muddy and very steep. We are racing against time," Chen Chung-chi, a supervisor of the operation, said earlier Thursday. (AFP)
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Baramati plane crash: Rohit Pawar alleges attempts to shield VSR Ventures
Mumbai (PTI): NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Wednesday alleged that someone was trying to save VSR Ventures in connection with the plane crash that killed Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, and claimed that the AAIB preliminary probe vindicated the doubts earlier raised by him.
He also accused VSR company of indulging in several grave lapses in the past.
The Learjet 45 aircraft, operated by VSR Ventures, crashed near the Baramati air strip in Pune district on January 28, killing Pawar and four others.
In its 22-page preliminary report on the VSR Venture's Learjet plane crash, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said the visibility at the time of the crash was below the required level. It also flagged about fading marks on the runway and presence of loose gravels on the runway surface.
Pawar said, "I am not against VSR or the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Ajitdada was travelling in a VSR aircraft. Unless we go into the depth of every aspect, we will not know the truth. But someone is trying to save this company. The doubts we had raised have been proven correct in the inquiry report."
He also claimed that the AAIB report contained discrepancies, including mentioning Baramati as a district, and questioned how seriously the probe had been conducted.
Pawar, who has been regularly holding press conferences to raise issues concerning the Baramati plane crash, also contested the report's conclusion that the aircraft hit trees before crashing.
"The report says the aircraft struck trees and then fell. But there are no trees at that spot. There is only a small bush which the aircraft did not even touch. What is stated in the report about hitting trees is incorrect," he said.
Pawar further alleged that VSR Ventures had displayed irresponsibility on multiple occasions, citing an incident involving the then chief minister Eknath Shinde's Davos visit on January 20, 2023.
He claimed that the aircraft carrying Shinde had entered Iranian and Iraqi airspace without overflight permission, following which fighter jets from the two countries allegedly warned of action, forcing a change in route from Bahrain to Zurich.
"There have been several such grave lapses by VSR," he said.
Pawar demanded to know from where VSR Ventures derived its "audacity", and sought details about its investors and officials, though he added that he was not personally concerned with who they were.
Drawing a comparison, he said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had taken over the probe into actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death within two days, whereas a month had passed since the Baramati crash without a similar action.
He claimed that VSR Ventures had two directors and three shareholders, and that there were eight common names across two related companies.
He further alleged that the owner of VSR was related to the Union Civil Aviation Minister and questioned why the company, though registered in Delhi, had made high-value investments in Jubilee Hills (upscale area in Hyderabad) at rates allegedly Rs 17 crore above the market price.
The MLA representing the Karjat-Jamkhed assembly constituency in Ahilyanagar district also raised concerns about the legal and institutional framework of the AAIB under the 2017 rules, claiming it was neither a statutory nor an autonomous body and remained answerable to the secretary and the minister, besides being attached to the DGCA.
"There is no independent investigative agency," he alleged.
