War Mode Setting Caused Taiwan Missile To Fire On China

Inappropriate use of “war mode” on the vessel’s control panel instead of a training setting led to the Taiwan navy’s fatal launch on Friday of an anti-ship missile that hit a Chinese fishing boat killing one person, a preliminary inquiry has found.

The patrol boat’s weapons operator was also left unsupervised before firing the missile, which struck a Taiwanese fishing boat and killed one person, according to a report by Legislative Yuan committee cited by Bloomberg News.

“The incident was caused by a series of discipline violations and mistakes,” the report said. “It wasn’t just one individual operating mistake.”

On Friday, a Taiwanese warship mistakenly launched a supersonic missile towards China, hitting a fishing boat and killing one person.The launch came as the Communist Party was celebrating its 95th anniversary on mainland China, which remains military rivals with the self-ruled island.

Taiwan’s Vice Admiral Mei Chia-shu described the missile launch as an isolated case caused by human error.