TAIPEI - The Taiwan air force has confirmed that an AT-3 training aircraft lost contact with air traffic control on Tuesday during a routine training flight.

The jet took off from an air force base in the southern city of Kaohsiung at around 11:55 a.m. and lost contact with air traffic controllers 30 minutes later.

A rescue team has been dispatched to search for the aircraft and two missing pilot.

The two pilots are Wang Ching-chun, a 32-year-old flight instructor with 1,489 flight hours and Huang Chun-jung, 23 with 116 flight hours.