The F-16 pilot, Hsin Po-yi, is believed to have ejected from the plane round 10 nautical miles off the coast. Search and rescue efforts are, on the time of writing, understood to nonetheless be in progress.
The incident occurred at 19:29 native time (11:29 UTC) on Jan. 6, 2026, when the Republic of China Air Drive (RoCAF) F-16V (serial 6700) disappeared from radar screens off the coast of Hualien County. Official statements say the plane was participating in routine coaching on the time, having taken off from Hualien Air Base simply over an hour prior.
Search and rescue (SAR) forces, together with C-130 and UH-60 Black Hawk plane and Coast Guard vessels, have been instantly activated. Close by civilian vessels additionally responded to requires help. No replace on the progress of the SAR effort has but been acquired.
Lai Ching-te, at present serving as President of the Republic of China – often known as Taiwan – wrote on social media, saying he had “instructed the Ministry of Nationwide Protection and related items to prioritize the protection of personnel and to conduct a full-scale search and rescue operation”. He added that the “Air Drive Response Middle has launched a joint search and rescue operation and is actively looking out the waters off Hualien.”
Airframe 6700 was delivered to the RoCAF as an F-16A. It underwent an improve program alongside the remainder of the fleet starting in 2017 (with all airframes upgraded by February 2024) bringing it as much as Block 72 normal, and it’s now designated an F-16V. Full working functionality (FOC) for the F-16V variant was declared in 2021. New construct Block 70 F-16s have been ordered by the RoCAF, and the primary full airframe was revealed at Lockheed Martin’s Greenville, South Carolina plant in March 2025.
150 F-16s have been ordered by the RoCAF in 1993, and all deliveries have been then accomplished by 2001. The overseas army gross sales program, often called Peace Fenghuang, or Peace Phoenix, drew important protest from the Folks’s Republic of China (PRC), who thought-about it a ‘betrayal’ of prior U.S. commitments and coverage. The US has not formally maintained diplomatic relations with the Republic of China since 1979, when diplomatic relations with the PRC have been opened. Regardless of this, the U.S. stays the Republic of China’s largest buying and selling companion and its most vital strategic ally.
Flashpoint
With more and more daring operations by the army forces of the PRC across the island of Taiwan, over which the PRC claims sovereignty, the F-16s and different plane of the RoCAF have regularly been within the information highlight. In October 2024, we reported on an encounter between RoCAF and PRC fighter plane whereas the latter operated from the plane provider Liaoning throughout an train.
The PRC launched extra drills within the ultimate days of 2025, which it referred to as “Justice Mission 2025”. The train included a big pressure of naval vessels from each the Folks’s Liberation Military Navy (PLAN) and the China Coast Guard, which took half in dwell hearth missions. Plane launched from land and from ships practiced airborne assault methods, undoubtedly targeted on the potential mission of an invasion of Taiwan – round which the train areas circled.
Over the previous 48 hours, China surrounded Taiwan and executed large-scale live-fire army workout routines that includes simulated decapitation strikes and the seizure of key ports.
“It’s a noose-style blockade. The operational scope is not restricted to symbolic, remoted reveals of… pic.twitter.com/6PznH0BhUc
— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) December 30, 2025
The RoCAF are regularly referred to as upon to watch and deter PRC exercise close to Taiwan’s maritime borders, and maintains a excessive coaching tempo to be able to maintain this and put together for any scenario which may come up.
Replace 19:40 UTC
The search and rescue operation continues to be ongoing, and is being hampered by poor climate. Ocean swells of as much as 3 metres and excessive winds are hampering the search belongings, and chilly temperatures will threaten the pilot’s probabilities of survival.
UPDATE: Search and rescue operations proceed to recuperate the pilot of an F-16.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard says 3m tall waves and extreme gale pressure winds are including to the complexity of the mission. pic.twitter.com/OU9PSHChAC
— Jaime Ocon 歐海美 (@JaimeOcon1) January 6, 2026
Replace 04:45 UTC
Sadly, search and rescue efforts proceed and the pilot stays lacking. New info from official sources signifies that his ejection can not be fully confirmed.
Recording from the F-16’s flight laptop reveals that the plane sounded an alarm, “EJECT, EJECT, EJECT.” Nevertheless, the army can not affirm whether or not the pilot truly ejected, as they’ll’t discover the locator on the ejection seat. @TaiwanMonitor
— Jaime Ocon 歐海美 (@JaimeOcon1) January 7, 2026
Taiwan’s complete fleet of F-16s has been grounded pending additional investigations into the reason for this incident.
This text issues an ongoing story, and shall be up to date as and when new info turns into obtainable.
