The plane took off at 1:00 p.m. from Songshan Air Base and was trailing smoke and sparks when it landed at Chingchuangkang Airport about half an hour later. President Ma Ying-jeou was aboard when the small fire broke out. Nobody was hurt.

In an interview with UFO Radio yesterday morning, Premier Wu Den-yih said that only one of the three existing Fokker 50 planes was flyable. Since the three 17-year-old aircrafts serve as VIP transport for the president, vice president, Cabinet ministers and generals, whose safety must be a priority, the replacement of the aircraft should be a top concern.

Even before he was chosen as the premier, Wu had urged the president to replace rescue aircraft after a helicopter crash killed the pilots during the August 8 Morakot Flood rescue missions, he said. Wu said he hopes that old fighter jets, rescue aircraft as well as VIP planes can all be replaced.