3 charged over missile fired at mainland
Print Edition
AN unsupervised Taiwan naval officer who accidentally fired a missile toward China’s mainland was one of three people charged in connection with the incident yesterday.
The Hsiung-feng III (Brave wind) missile hit a Taiwan trawler, killing its skipper and injuring three crew members on July 1.
Prosecutors in the southern port city of Kaoshiung said Kao Chia-chun had been left alone in the master control room for up to seven minutes.
Kao decided to practice without a supervisor, despite the system being in “combat mode,” prosecutors said.
“He did not ultimately notice that missiles No. 3 and No. 4 were already in ‘live-fire’ mode and went on to press ... ‘allow launch,’ ‘launch missile,’ and ‘confirm,’”prosecutors said.
One of the missiles traveled for about two minutes, automatically searching for a target before locking onto the fishing boat in the waters off Penghu Islands.
Kao was charged with negligence leading to death and injuries, as well as damaging weaponry.
His supervisor Chen Ming-hsiu and Lieutenant Hsu Po-wei, who was responsible for overseeing weapons, were charged with neglecting their duties.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
