Release Date 05 May 2021

Last year, a Taiwan Air Force F-5E fighter jet crashed into the sea in eastern Taiwan. This year, NKUST Associate Professor Wen, Chan-Chuan of Shipping Technology Department (ST) led a team of experienced staff and crew experts in search and rescue tasks on the research vessel Polaris. It took them 2 months to identify the exact location of the jet. On April 30, they spent more than 10 hours assisting in the salvage work on the crashed jet and sent it back to Port of Kaohsiung (POK) on May 1.

NKUST was one of the few universities in Taiwan that offered maritime engineering programs, and Assoc. Prof. Wen was one of the experts who can operate a deep-sea submersible and assist in salvage work. He also assisted in salvage work on the UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter in 2019.

Assoc. Prof. Wen has operated salvage tasks for 8 times. The UH-60M Black Hawk salvage task was the hardest one as the chopper was 800 meters underwater and it took the crew a great effort to salvage it. In contrast, the F-5E fighter jet was only 200 meters underwater. But, to keep the wreckage intact under the pressure of choppy seas and seasonal currents, the task still took us two months.

The wreckage of the F-5E fighter jet has been unloaded on the docks of Cijin Campus and the military has dismantled the jet to send back to the base for further investigation days ago.

“It was heartbreaking to lose our top pilots. There’s nothing we could do for such tragedy but to improve our techniques on the salvage operation. With our deep-sea submersible instruments, we could conduct the search, rescue, and salvage tasks, offering help to such unfortunate crashes,” says Vice President Yu, Ker-Wei.

“We offer students an ambitious curriculum and extra on-site training as our department has a variety of training facilities and experienced lecturers who are also experts in the field.”

“We offer students an ambitious curriculum and extra on-site training as our department has a variety of training facilities and experienced lecturers who are also experts in the field. Compared with other universities, we do have the advantages in educational resources for interested students,” says Dr. Tsai, Chaur-Luh, Chair of Shipping Technology Department.

Although the general public is unfamiliar with the shipping technology industry, this is a niche and growing field of research and applications. Right now, is the enrollment season, a perfect time for high school students to get a head start on building their knowledge in the field in the university.  

Translated by Jess Lin     Reviewed by Prof. Amy Tang