May 31, 2003 at 10:11 pm
Here is a story apparently circulating on Taiwanese and Chinese boards. Can anyone verify if there is any truth to it.
With regards to the sensitivity fo the issue, the President has asked the Taiwan authorities to keep a code of silence until the Pentagon figures things out. White House Press Secretary has repeatedly refused to either comment or verify the issue…
At 17:02 of the day (unspecified date), 2 F-16s, 1 Mirage-2000 and an IDF fighter belonging to the 2nd Division of the 455th Company of the ROCAF Jiayi Airbase took of in a training excerise named “Preemptive Strike, Strategic Entry Westward into the Mainland”. By the time the fighters reached the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, the pilots failed to respond and flew straight into Chinese airspace. The ROCAF dispatched 2 F-16s and 2 IDFs to intercept the fly-away fighters, and China scrambled 3 J-8IIIs to intercept, the fighters flew past the mid-line for 7 mins and PLAAF dispatched 4 SU-27s to flank the 2 F-16s, while the J-8III fended off the persuers. All ROCAF fighters were turned back. The 2 F-16s under the escort of the Flankers landed at the airbase in Fuzhou. One of the F-16s was a RF-16 armed with AGM-84AS Harpoon ASMs.