Taiwan’s top military official, Gen. Shen Yi-ming was among eight people killed on Thursday after their Black Hawk helicopter crashed into mountains in the north of the island.

The 62-year-old Gen. Yi-ming, Taiwan military’s Chief of General Staff was en route to visit troops when the UH-60M helicopter he was in disappeared from radar near New Taipei City while carrying 13 people including the crew.

A Thursday press conference by Lt. Gen Hsiung Hou-chi of the country’s Air Force said Gen. Yi-ming was confirmed dead along with seven other people on board while five others survived.

Hsiung said the ill-fated helicopter whose condition was not ideal for flying lost contact with Base 13 minutes after taking off at 8:07 am local time, adding that the ministry had set up a task force to investigate the cause of the incident.

According to a spokesman, Chen Hao-feng, Gen. Yi-ming was initially found conscious by a search team from the New Taipei City fire department and sent to hospital where he died.

Yi-ming, a graduate of Taiwan’s Air Force Academy in 1979 and the United States Air War College in 2002 previously served as the island’s Air Force commander. He took office as Chief of General Staff in July last year.

The crash comes ahead of the self-governing island’s general election on January 11 where President Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party will face off against Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomintang Party, which has advocated for closer ties with mainland China.

Both main candidates have suspended their campaigns following the crash.

Tsai’s campaign office said it would stop electioneering for three days while Han’s campaign office announced that all activities would be cancelled for Thursday and Friday.