A Taiwanese air force plane carrying 18 senior military officers crashed near a village today and all the passengers were feared dead. A spokesman for the Defense Ministry said the plane, a personnel transport craft, was taking the officers, including several major generals, to an important meeting when it crashed in Yunlin, a village 150 miles south of Taipei. The air force said the plane was in two parts after plowing into a sugar cane field in the central part of Taiwan. Taiwan's official Broadcasting Corp. of China said the aircraft was broken into two following an explosion. A part of the plane fell on the suger cane field and the rest was scattered in small pieces, it said. The Defense Ministry spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said everyone on board was feared dead. Rescue crews were at the site, the air force said, but so far no survivors have been found.
