Anybody heard about the mom and baby that got evacuated to Japan via USAF from Taipei airport?
Says the plane was to evacuate a mom and a new born to Japan.
But the news also said 20+ people also boarded the plane heading for Japan.
Seems kinda strange for the others that were going…if it was only for the mom and baby.
OH no run for the hills that must mean the Chicoms are coming !!
Or something.
[quote=“tommy525”]OH no run for the hills that must mean the Chicoms are coming !!
Or something.[/quote]
The US is far more likely to fall into civil war than the Chinese coming to invade Taiwan…
There’s already a sort of a relationship between Taiwan and China, a war between the two will do neither side any good.
Not long ago there were evac flights from Japan to Taiwan cuz of the radiation danger.
Dont see why an american woman and her baby will be evac from taipei airport? For what reason?
IS someone mistaking Taiwan for Thailand again?
Or maybe this thing?
[quote=“suntex01”]Anybody heard about the mom and baby that got evacuated to Japan via USAF from Taipei airport?
Says the plane was to evacuate a mom and a new born to Japan.
But the news also said 20+ people also boarded the plane heading for Japan.
Seems kinda strange for the others that were going…if it was only for the mom and baby.[/quote]
Yes it probably is,as tommy says, someone mixing up Thailand and Taiwan. The floods are apparently getting ridiculous.
[quote=“tommy525”]Not long ago there were evac flights from Japan to Taiwan cuz of the radiation danger.
Dont see why an American woman and her baby will be evac from taipei airport? For what reason?
IS someone mistaking Taiwan for Thailand again?
Or maybe this thing?
dailymail.co.uk/news/article … -calm.html[/quote]
Does Thailand have a Songshan Airport?
If they’re afraid of radiation in or from Japan, why would they be going to Japan?
I think it said something about a premature baby (早產兒 ; zǎo chǎn’ér)
[quote=“suntex01”]Link to photo:
udn.com/NEWS/NATIONAL/NAT1/6684609.shtml[/quote]
pretty cool. with so many spotters around, one would think that would appear on youtube eventually. ITs certainly the first time in decades a US military plane landed at Taipei Airport I think. Other then special congressional junket flights of course.
it may have been a training flight who knows.
Or if an AIT person needed medical care in Japan (unusual because Taiwan has excellent medical facilities far as I know) it would probably be easier for a passing US air force plane to stop and pick up the person rather then chartering a private plane.
Makes sense.
KC135 is a US Air Force version of the Boeing 707. Was this a tanker? Or maybe they have other versions. Who knows maybe they have a special forces version for various purposes.
The US military doesnt want YOU to know all its secrets.
But i will be seeing on youtube to see if anyone captured the landing/take off of this bird.
pretty hard to escape attention sucha plane landing in sungshan i would imagine.
to charlie:
does thailand have a sungshan airport? not to my knowledge . And certainly flying TO japan to escape Japanese radiation doesnt make much sense either 
That’s a tanker for sure, you can see the refueling boom at the tail end. “K” is a tanker designation. Probably just the closest available plane; there’s plenty of extra room I’m sure.
A bit overkill for a KC10 to come into SongShan to pick up a mother and premature baby and airlift them from Taiwan. One would have thought that the care here would exceed much of that which could be found elsewhere, including the US.
What is concerning is the preferential treatment AIT members receive if the story is really true.
I don’t believe it anyway.
1): The KC10 wouldn’t have tried to sneak in just to airlift a mother and child.
2): It would be more dangerous to airlift a premature child out of Taiwan than to treat it here. KC10’s I believe don’t routinely have incubators on board and if this aircraft was operational for refuel duty it would have been a worrying environment to place a newborn child, even in the crew area.
3): I smell a rat - the reason just doesn’t make sense.
possibly some secret weapon deal so China doesn’t get all mad…
All valid points. But I dont worry that high ranking AIT members receive preferential treatment. They are after all in reality still US govt employees. It wouldnt be out of place for them to call on the US AirForce to help out if needed. And any suitable US military plane flying nearby could respond if they felt that was the best and quickest way.
But Taiwan does have excellent facilities for medical treatment. Its like like Thailand or the such. And yes unnecessary travel is not good for premees either.
There may be more to the story.
And uh, a KC 135 is a pretty big plane to try to “hide” from public eyes at the main airport right in the heart of Taipei aint it?
by the way its not a KC10 which is a tanker version of the 3 engined Dc10. This bird is a 4 engine kc135 (tanker version of b707).
[quote=“tommy525”]All valid points. But I don’t worry that high ranking AIT members receive preferential treatment. They are after all in reality still US govt employees. It wouldnt be out of place for them to call on the US AirForce to help out if needed. And any suitable US military plane flying nearby could respond if they felt that was the best and quickest way.
But Taiwan does have excellent facilities for medical treatment. Its like like Thailand or the such. And yes unnecessary travel is not good for premees either.
There may be more to the story.
And uh, a KC 135 is a pretty big plane to try to “hide” from public eyes at the main airport right in the heart of Taipei aint it?
by the way its not a KC10 which is a tanker version of the 3 engined Dc10. This bird is a 4 engine kc135 (tanker version of b707).[/quote]
Yea, I was just curious as to what the “more to the story” part would be. Other articles said there were 20+ additional personnel that boarded the plane as well. And I would think Taiwan’s medical facility should be able to handle most situations… Just wondered if anybody knew why they decided to evacuate the baby and mom…
Didnt i read that babies are not covered by med insurance in taiwan?
Treating premees can be very very expensive. Perhaps the AIT thought prudent to have the baby treated in Japan at a Military hospital? LIke I said top AIT personnel are still US govt employees.
And other people gettin on the flight were probably other govt related people catching the flight.
Uncle Sam saving a few bucks. Not that novel a concept.
Yeah, I was for some reason thinking about VC10’s as I had them on my mind when I was reading this - got reminded of some memories.
Tommy - the article in Chinese said the plane used another runway at Songshan to try to sneak in, however, it occurred to me that there are no other runways at Songshan, only10/28, so the article must have been talking about the aux. military runway at CTP, which the plane did not land at. Inaccurate reporting as usual by the Taiwanese media which made me think they were talking about CTP initially.
Anyway, I’m a firm believer that government officials shouldn’t get preferential treatment - in fact, it should be mandatory that they get whatever everybody else gets as a matter of principle, unless they pay for preferential treatment themselves.
Well, it didn’t really cost the taxpayer anything because that aircraft would gave been operational somewhere and there is a budget for it. However, I find it strange that resources can be diverted to unnecessarily airlift a mother and child out of Taipei, but resources cannot be used to effectively airlift hundreds of citizens out of countries where a threat to their safety is imminent, as has happened in the past several times.
Members of the govt are still going to be more equal then us common citizens. Cant stop the senators from jettin around in those air force G5 bizjets can we?
AIT top personnel are equal in rank to those serving in US embassys worldwide and have benefits not available to joe average should emergency treatment be required.
Not fair? yeah but Uncle Sam takes care of its govt workers (according to rank).
As for costs , I suppose the Sungshan airport (being also a military base) wont charge for the landing of the Kc135. And I am not sure (but i imagine) the KC135 had its own fuel so no need to tank up in sungshan. So all it costs is the extra gas to stop and go in sungshan. Part of that offset by the extra people hitching a ride that would probably hv gone commercial. Maybe some couriers as well who always fly FIRST CLASS on commercial (as told to me by one i met once on a flight) as available.
so Uncle Sam made use of the flight best it could.
I just wish some taipei spotters had a youtube of it to share tho.
News video here, but only stock footage (of a KC10 at points lol.)
Apparently it has a reasonably large cargo bay, which I didn’t realize. You’d think they’d include as much fuel capacity as possible. Probably extra tanks can be installed if desired.
The only strange thing to me is, if it was for a premature infant, which makes sense, why 20 other people went along for the ride. I can’t imagine they regularly move such numbers, though maybe there was some sort of delegation. Perhaps it was a scheduled, cost saving move, and the infant was used a a justification to placate the PRC? That seems kind of unlikely I guess. To go even more tinfoil, a spy repatriation, played down as much as possible?
Not surprising that a government would seek to take care of its employees. The plane was based in Okinawa presumably and the flight could have been worth it purely from a training standpoint.
[quote=“tommy525”]
Maybe some couriers as well who always fly FIRST CLASS on commercial (as told to me by one i met once on a flight) as available.
.[/quote]
Well, I think it depends on which part of Uncle Sam’s departments you work for. I know my wife only gets to fly whatever the travel budget allows.
But from my experience, it seems to be first class when available.
My pop was in the US military when he was in Taiwan and he used to catch the MAC flights to HK free of charge. He often went to HK that way.
MAC flights are a way of life for the US military personnel who are able to use them. The US military personnel in Okinawa would have the use of such flights as they would EXIST. They dont exist in Taiwan anymore.
But lets examine this scenario: (my two cents )
AIT person (also still a US State Dept career officer mind you) has a wife who has a premee and both of them need to be hospitalized. In many other postings where there may be a US military base there would also be a US military hospital. And US embassy personnel would be able to use those facilities with Uncle Sam picking up the tab.
This may have been problematic on the wan as being on paper normal US citizens working for the “private” AIT, they may be covered under the standard insurance your average foreign legal resident of Taiwan is covered by. And I understand babies are not covered until X months after birth.
This creates a logistical problem. Mom may be covered by the standard insurance while baby is not. Should the hospital just charge accordingly and Uncle Sam picks up the tab? A premee could run up quite a bill you know?
So they probably thought why not ship them off to a US military facility where Uncle Sam can pick up the tab ? There are US military flights all over the region all the time (just not landing in Taiwan). So they can schedule a diversion of a suitable aircraft.
This was probably done hours or even a day or two before the actual landing so they would know that the plane is coming and what type of aircraft with how many extra seatings?
Thus other AIT personnel could avail of this particular flight as well.
Maybe we had some Couriers on normal missions that diplomatic outposts incur (The AIT still has a lot of courier traffic one could presume). OR some personnel may be using this essentially MAC flight to get to Japan and jump on other US military flights there going back to the USA, etc etc.
Im sure a number of people normally travel on commercial transport would be told to make use of this flight.
So all in all, nothing unusual except that KC135 landing in Sungshan is probably a FIRST ever.
So its unusual but explanable.
OR? maybe its all part of a new Bond flick?? See any camera action goin on?
Right… so secret its on public video