The bodies of 14 former Kuomintang (KMT) officers who died when their PV-2 spy plane was downed during a mission over the Chinese mainland 38 years ago were brought home Tuesday, the air force said.
The remains will be buried at an air force martyers' cemetery outside Taipei in a ceremony to be presided over by Air Force Commander-in-Chief General Chen Chao-min on Monday next week.
"A solemn ceremony will be held to soothe the spirits of the martyers who lost their lives in the mission," an air force statement said.
The ill-fated aircraft was shot down by a Chinese fighter in Linchuan, in the central Chinese province of Jiangxi. It had been chased by eight MiG-17s and Tu-4s before it eventually crashed.
The families appealed to the Jiangxi authorities last year who promised to help arrange the return of the remains of the former KMT crew.
The KMT government fled China in 1949 at the end of a civil war after their troops were defeated by communist forces led by Mao Zedong.
With tensions gradually easing, Taiwan lifted its decades-old ban on family reunions in 1987.
The spy plane was with the US-financed "Black Bat Squadron" which flew to the mainland at low altitude to collect information during the Cold War period.
The squadron lost 148 crew from 15 PV-2s and B-17s, most of them listed as missing, before the National government halted the flights in the mid-1960s -- AFP
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
