During the press conference today by the RoC Army, the pilot of the AH-64E that crashed in Taoyan county said he encountered poor visibility before the crash.
Maj. Chen Long Qian said he took off at 10:00 hrs and was climbing to 140ft when the cockpit canopy started to fog and the crew lost visual cue. Maj. Chen increase the engine power and climbed to 350ft. An attempt to use the on board electro-optical system to fly the aircraft failed as the cloud ceiling descended to 200ft. Disoriented, he only saw the row of houses from the IHADSS moments before the crash.
The aircraft has flown a total of 86 hours 30 minutes, number 1 engine has 8 hours and number 2 engine has 106 hours. It arrived in Taiwan on Nov. 7 last year and the main trasmission box was changed on Mar. 13 and completed on Mar. 19.
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