'You left a gift for me to make me strong': Pilot's widow

飛行員的遺孀：“你給我留下了讓我堅強的禮物”

Lo had only been married for 2 weeks when he perished in crash


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After learning that her husband had passed, the widow of a Taiwanese fighter pilot who died in the line of duty on Monday (March 22) posted a message on social media expressing her grief and revealing she is over two months pregnant.

On Monday afternoon (March 22), two F-5E fighter jets are believed to have collided and crashed into the ocean off the coast of Pingtung County (37.5 nautical miles southeast of their base), according to the National Rescue Command Center (NRCC).

At 2:30 p.m., four F-5E fighter jets took off from Taitung's Chihhang Air Base on a training mission, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). However, at 3:06 p.m., two of the jets collided, with the two pilots, Captain Pan Ying-chun (潘穎諄), 28, and First Lieutenant Lo Shang-hua (羅尚樺), 26, reportedly able to eject before their aircraft crashed into the sea.

At 4:14, police found an ejection seat and parachute at the 73-kilometer mark of Provincial Highway 26, but no pilot was found nearby.

At 4:22 p.m., Lo was found in the sea with vital signs but unconscious. He was transferred to the Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital for emergency treatment, though doctors were unable to resuscitate him, and he was pronounced dead. Search teams have found Pan's boot, life jacket, and wreckage from his aircraft, but they have yet to find him.

Local media reported that evening that Lo had just married two weeks before, having filed their marriage registration at the household registration office on March 5. On Monday evening, Lo's wife posted a message on Facebook and Instagram that read, "I love you, husband and wife are two birds in the same forest. No matter what, I will fly with you."

On Tuesday morning, Lo's wife on Instagram posted an image from her "280days: Pregnancy Diary" showing there are 202 days before the birth of their child, indicating she is more than two and half months pregnant. In the caption, she wrote she misses him and that their child misses his father. She pledged to honor her husband's wish to protect their child.

In reference to their unborn child, she said to her husband, "I know you are afraid that I will not be able to survive alone, so you left a gift for me to make me strong." She closed by saying, "I know you are still there, you turned into a moth to stay with me for one night. There are many more nights I wish to stay with you."