Shortly before noon on Tuesday 10 November, a two-seat jet trainer touched down at Gangshan Air Force Base in southern Taiwan and kept going. Its brakes had failed. One main-wheel tyre burst, the jet veered off the runway and its main landing gear was damaged. The student, a lieutenant, and his instructor, a lieutenant colonel, climbed out unhurt.

The aircraft was a T-5 Brave Eagle, the advanced jet trainer that Taiwan designed and built itself, and which completed its 66-aircraft production run only seven weeks earlier. By Wednesday 11 November, the Republic of China Air Force had grounded the entire fleet for special inspections.

Nine brake incidents in three years

The incident was first reported on Tuesday evening by the United Daily News, which said the jet belonged to the Air Force Flight Training Command and was landing after a training sortie at around 11:45 local time. According to the paper and the news site TaiSounds, the brakes malfunctioned on landing, one main tyre blew and the trainer ran off the side of the runway.

On Wednesday morning, Air Force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Lee Ching-jan was questioned about the incident in the Legislative Yuan by Taiwan People’s Party legislator Wang An-hsiang. Lee confirmed that an investigation had found a mechanical failure, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) and the Taipei Times reported.

Lee also gave a figure that will worry anyone who flies the type. The Brave Eagle fleet has recorded nine brake-related incidents in the past three years. In eight of them, he said, the aircraft’s safety mechanisms worked and the jets stopped safely on the runway. Tuesday’s case was the only one involving a serious brake failure.

Wang was less reassured. He told the legislature that repeated reports of brake failures and maintenance problems on the Brave Eagle could point to a flight safety concern, and urged the Air Force to review the problems and propose fixes.

The whole fleet stays on the ground

After the incident, the Air Force grounded all 65 Brave Eagles for special inspections on the advice of the manufacturer, Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC), a military source told CNA. The jets will return to flight training once the checks confirm there are no technical problems. No date has been given.

TVBS News reports on the Brave Eagle that ran off the runway at Gangshan after its brakes failed (in Mandarin).

The timing is awkward for the Flight Training Command. According to the United Daily News and TaiSounds, it had already dealt with another mishap the previous week, when a T-34C primary trainer flown by a new student on a solo flight porpoised on landing, damaging its nose gear and losing its nose wheel.

It is also the second time the young fleet has been grounded. In February 2025, a Brave Eagle crashed into the sea about five nautical miles off Taitung after both engines failed. The pilot ejected safely, and the fleet was grounded until early March 2025 while the Air Force investigated. That loss is why the Air Force has 65 Brave Eagles, not 66.

Taiwan’s home-grown trainer

The Brave Eagle is the centrepiece of Taiwan’s effort to build its own military aircraft again. Developed by AIDC with the government’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology under a programme launched in 2017, it is derived from the F-CK-1 Ching-Kuo Indigenous Defense Fighter, but more than 80 percent of its components were redesigned. It is powered by two Honeywell/ITEC F124 turbofans.

The first prototype was rolled out on 24 September 2019 and named by then-President Tsai Ing-wen, and it was shown flying in public in June 2020. On 24 September 2026, AIDC chairman Tsao Chin-pin personally flew one of the last two production jets, numbers 1165 and 1166, to the Air Force Academy at Gangshan, CNA reported, closing a nine-year programme.

The jet replaced the retired AT-3 and F-5E/F in Taiwan’s training system. Student pilots go from the T-34 to the Brave Eagle and then on to frontline fighters such as the F-16V, so a long grounding would ripple straight through the pipeline at a time when Taiwan is receiving its first F-16 Block 70s.

Focus Taiwan on the delivery of the final two Brave Eagles in September 2026, seven weeks before the grounding.

Cosa succederà dopo?

Nobody was hurt, and by the Air Force’s own account the brakes have usually done their job. But a fleet-wide stand-down seven weeks after the last delivery is not the start to service life Taiwan wanted for its flagship home-grown jet. The question now is whether AIDC’s inspections find a one-off fault or something that runs through all 65 aircraft.

Sources: Central News Agency (Focus Taiwan), Taipei Times, United Daily News, TaiSounds, TVBS News

Header photo: 廢柴老闆 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0