Premier Jiang Yi-huah today ordered that flags be lowered to half-mast from August 5-7 to mourn those who lost their lives in the gas explosions in Kaohsiung City last night and the plane crash in Penghu July 23.
Jiang gave this instruction while inspecting the Central Emergency Operation Center dedicated to responding to the accident. He also asked all government agencies to do their best to help the Kaohsiung City Government with rescue and relief operations.
Terrible casualties have resulted from both the Kaohsiung and Penghu accidents, and as a unified expression of all citizens' grief, public institutions nationwide will lower their flags for three days beginning August 5.
This date was chosen because it is the 14th or "second seventh" day since the Penghu plane crash. It is a Taiwanese tradition to hold prayer rituals every seventh day after a loved one has passed away, often extending to the 49th ("seventh seventh") day, to help the departed to journey to paradise. It is also within the first seven days of mourning for the Kaohsiung disaster.
According to the Executive Yuan, Articles 5-7 of the implementation regulations for lowering the flag to half-mast (promulgated December 8, 2006) stipulate that if a natural or man-made disaster causes grave injuries and losses of life, the central regulating authority of disaster prevention and protection may request that the Executive Yuan decide to lower the flags on certain dates and for a given amount of time. The Executive Yuan may then notify relevant agencies, public schools and local governments of its decision so they may lower the flags on their grounds during that period. The central regulating authority of disaster prevention and protection and its duties are defined in Article 3 of the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act.
The Executive Yuan also noted that flags have previously been lowered to half-mast to commemorate victims of the September 21, 1999 ("921") earthquake centered in Nantou County and Typhoon Morakot, which made landfall on Taiwan August 8, 2009.
Following the 921 earthquake, flags were lowered from September 23-25, 1999. After Typhoon Morakot, they were lowered from August 22-24, 2009.