Taiwan’s F-16 Learns How to Ghost Pilots and Literally Drops Out
KEY POINTS
- •On a stormy Tuesday night, Captain Hsin Po-yi’s F-16 went missing off Taiwan’s northeast coast during a training flight from Hualien Air Base.
- •Taiwan’s Air Force grounded all 140 of its F-16 A/B fighters and paused training after a computer malfunction apparently erased the crashed jet’s flight data.
- •Search and rescue operations continue amid rough seas, with officials unsure if Captain Hsin ejected before the jet hit the water.
In a plot twist wilder than a soap opera cliffhanger, Capt. Hsin Po-yi and his American-made Lockheed Martin F-16A/B jet pulled a disappearing act off Taiwan’s northeast coast this Tuesday night near Hualien after a mysterious onboard computer glitch erased its flight path at just 1,700 feet. As its altitude plummeted faster than a TikTok influencer’s relevance, the pilot reportedly announced he'd eject—then vanished into the ocean like a canceled Netflix show. The Taiwanese air force, stressed from daily Chinese airspace scrambles, immediately grounded its entire 140-strong F-16 fleet, suspended night trainings, and called in Search & Rescue amid giant waves rivaling Kaiju movie sets. Meanwhile, similar jet blackouts have happened before, proving that Taiwan’s F-16s moonlight as stealth masters in malfunction mode.
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Taiwanese F-16: skydiving with no parachute, pilot cryptically undecided if he jumped. Meanwhile, fleet grounded like a toddler who just threw their last toy.
When your top fighter jet ghosts you mid-flight and your pilot plays hard to find, you know it’s been that kind of week in Taiwan’s skies.
Nothing says military readiness like a 50-year-old jet casually dropping its pilot and flight data simultaneously. Meanwhile, the sea’s giving the best witness protection possible.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 1/7/2026 | Author: Chris Panella
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