TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's Air Force (空軍) located the black box from a missing F-16V fighter jet Thursday (Jan. 15), nine days after the aircraft vanished off the east coast. The pilot remains missing despite search operations involving more than 2,200 personnel across air, sea and coastal areas.
The crash data recorder lies approximately 31 nautical miles (57 kilometers) south of Hualien (花蓮), the Air Force said. The site is too deep for Taiwan's salvage teams, forcing authorities to seek assistance from specialized firms in Singapore and Japan. No timeline for their deployment has been announced. The Air Force has not disclosed the crash site depth, information critical for assessing retrieval difficulty and timeline.
Captain Hsin Po-yi (辛柏毅), 29, was flying the single-seat F-16V (tail number 6700) on a routine night training mission on Jan. 6. He reported mission computer failure and possible spatial disorientation before his aircraft vanished. His radar signature disappeared at 7:29 p.m. at an altitude of just 170 feet (52 meters).
Search teams have flown 80 aircraft missions and 89 naval operations, with more than 2,200 people searching coastal areas, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Lee Ching-jan (李慶然). No trace of Captain Hsin has been found, and no emergency beacon signal from his ejection seat has been detected. It remains unclear whether he successfully ejected from the aircraft.
The incident has intensified scrutiny of Taiwan's F-16 fleet following anonymous complaints on social media from pilots. They claim the aircraft's upgraded mission computers frequently malfunction. One poster identifying as a veteran F-16 instructor pilot alleged that radar warning systems provide inaccurate threat information. The pilot also claimed aircraft sometimes execute violent uncommanded rolls.
The anonymous post claims "110 pilots may be retiring this year," but this figure has not been verified by official sources or independent reporting. Hsin reported a malfunction in his Modular Mission Computer (MMC) during the return leg of his training mission. The MMC serves as the aircraft's central processing system, integrating navigation, radar and flight attitude data.
The Air Force maintains that tail number 6700 had no serious problems during the six months preceding the crash. The aircraft completed its major inspection on Oct. 30, 2025, and flew 35 hours afterward without major malfunctions, according to maintenance records. However, the Air Force has not released fleet-wide data on mission computer failure rates, leaving broader safety questions unanswered.
While the Air Force confirmed that no MMC failures occurred for this specific aircraft in the past six months, no fleet-wide malfunction statistics have been provided. Taiwan operates 140 F-16V Block 20 aircraft, which were upgraded from the original F-16A/B fleet delivered in the 1990s. This is the 11th F-16 lost since the fleet entered service in 1997, raising ongoing safety concerns. ◼
