In response to media’s coverage on the incident “A young American flies a plane around the world but ends up intercepted by F-16 after flying into Taiwan’s airspace”, the Air Force Command Headquarters says today (10^th) that at 14:45 on September 19^th, 2018, radar picked up an unidentified aircraft flying from the Philippines to Japan. It was suspected that the pilot unintentionally flew into our nation’s air defense identification zone (not airspace) to avoid running into bad weather. The Air Force Command Headquarters immediately dispatched F-16 aircraft to intercept and verify the plane, before finally leading the plane to exit according to its original flight route.

Furthermore, the Air Force Command Headquarters wishes to stress that it is fully aware of all aircrafts that are in the nation’s air defense identification zone, and keeps close eye on their movements at any time. The Headquarters ensures the public that response to any contingency will be made by following rules on war preparations to keep the nation’s airspace safe.