News In Brief

Chinese mainland pilot flies his MIG to Taiwan

A Chinese Air Force pilot defected to Taiwan Monday with his MIG-17 fighter and landed at Taipei's international airport, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. The spokesman said Wang Hsueh-cheng, 28, believed to be the equivalent of a captain, took off from Daishan Air Base in eastern China's Zhejiang Province.

An award of $1.5 million in gold awaited the pilot for flying his plane to Taiwan, the second pilot in the communist mainland's Air Force to defect in less than four months.